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Mamata Banerjee, two TMC MLAs to take oath on October 7: Governor
The governor also asserted that he will not delegate the responsibility to Bengal assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, whose power to administer the oath of office to members of the state legislature was withdrawn by Raj Bhawan before the bypolls.
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday said he will administer on October 7, the oath to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and two Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators as members of state legislative assembly.
The governor also asserted that he will not delegate the responsibility to assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, whose power to administer the oath of office to members of the state legislature was withdrawn by Raj Bhawan before the bypolls.
As per convention, it is the speaker who administers the oath to legislators while the governor administers the oath of office to ministers.
Besides Banerjee, newly-elected TMC legistors Jakir Hossain and Amirul Islam from Jangipur and Samsergang constituencies, respectively, in Murshidabad district will also take oath in the assembly on Thursday.
“Under Article 188 (of the Constitution), oath or affirmation is to be ‘before the governor, or some person appointed in that behalf by him.’ However, prior to this, in terms of Section 67 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 ‘the appropriate authority shall cause to be published in the official gazette and declarations containing the names of the elected candidates’,” a statement released by Raj Bhawan said.
“In view of the above, invoking powers vested in me under Article 188 of the Constitution, I direct that oath/affirmation to the elected members of the WBLA viz Mamata Banerjee (Bhawanipore), Jakir Hossain (Jangipur) and Amirul Islam (Samserganj) shall be administered by the undersigned at the premises of the West Bengal legislative assembly on October 7…at 2 pm..,” it added.
Banerjee won the September 30-Bhabanipur bypoll with a record margin of 58,835 votes on October 3. She needed to win the election to retain the chief minister’s chair, after losing the May assembly elections from Nandigram seat to her former protege and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari.
Banerjee, who took oath as chief minister on May 5, needs to be sworn in as a member of the state assembly within six months, i.e, by November 4.
In a letter to Dhankhar on October 1, the state government requested him to authorise the speaker to conduct the ceremony. However, the governor sought a gazette notification on the Bhabanipur bypoll results, due to which, the government could not carry out its original plan of holding the ceremony on October 4.
“We have formally requested the governor to administer the oath before noon on October 7. We hope that once the notification is issued, he will come to the assembly house and administer the oath of office to the chief minister and the two legislators,” parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters on Monday.
Assembly speaker Biman Banerjee expressed his anguish. “I do not know why the governor has to come to the assembly to administer oath of office to legislators. Such a thing has never happened anywhere. I will take this up later,” he said.
Chatterjee made it clear that although unhappy with the governor, the TMC will not create a controversy. “We do not know why he (Dhankhar) took this decision. Let the programme take place peacefully. I am not going to say anything controversial.”
