Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee administers oath to 2 TMC MLAs

Kolkata: West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Friday administered the oath to two newly elected TMC MLAs, instead of the Deputy Speaker who was authorised by Governor C V Ananda Bose for the job.

After a month-long impasse between the Raj Bhavan and the assembly, two TMC MLAs - Rayat Hossain Sarkar from Bhagwangola in Murshidabad district and Sayantika Banerjee from Baranagar on the northern outskirts of Kolkata - took oath during a special session of the state assembly.

In a sudden development on Thursday evening, Governor Bose authorised Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee to administer the oath in the assembly on Friday, shifting from his previous stand that the MLAs would be sworn in at the Raj Bhavan.

However, during the special session of the assembly, the Deputy Speaker recused himself from the programme and said, "It is against the norms for the Deputy Speaker to administer the oath when the Speaker is present on the Chair." Following the Deputy Speaker's appeal, Biman Banerjee called both the MLAs to the floor of the House and administered the oath.

Protesting the governor's stand, both legislators had been on a sit-in on the assembly premises for the past few days, demanding they be administered oath by the Speaker as per the convention of the House.