As the West Bengal Assembly prepares for the induction of four new TMC MLAs following the conclusion of the by-polls, Speaker Biman Banerjee on Monday said the swearing-in ceremony should be held within the house premises only, as per well-established legislative convention.
Significantly, the statement by the Speaker, who affirmed that conventionally, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker administers oaths in the assembly in case of by-poll victories, comes after a major fiasco held between Raj Bhawan and the state government over the venue selected for the swearing-in ceremony of two TMC MLAs, Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Rayat Hossain Sarkar, who won in June by-polls from Baranagar and Bhagabangola, respectively.
While Governor C. V. Ananda Bose extended an invitation to the newly inducted MLAs for the swearing-in to be held at the Raj Bhawan, the two, however, rejected the Governor's invitation, citing that convention dictates that in the case of by-poll winners, the Governor assigns the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to administer the oath. Notably, the row between the Trinamool Congress and Raj Bhavan continued for a month until July 5, when the Speaker administered the oath to the two newly elected TMC MLAs, instead of the Deputy Speaker who was authorized by Governor C. V. Ananda Bose for the job during a special session of the assembly.
About the four new MLAs
Meanwhile, it is pertinent to note that the new TMC MLAs who are ready for their induction to the legislative assembly post-TMC's significant win in the by-polls conducted on four seats in the state are—Supti Pande from Maniktala (Kolkata), Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj (Uttar Dinajpur), Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat-Dakshin, and Madhuparna Thakur from Bagdah (North 24 Parganas).
Notably, the by-polls were necessitated on those seats as Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah, and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin gave up their seats to contest the Lok Sabha elections. While the by-election in Maniktala was necessitated after the death of Sadhan Pandey in 2022.
