Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee favours oath-taking of 4 newly elected MLAs in Assembly

Kolkata: West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Monday said he was in favour of the swearing-in of four newly elected TMC MLAs within the House premises as per well-established legislative conventions.

Banerjee's remark follows a month-long dispute involving the Trinamool Congress and Raj Bhavan over the oath-taking of MLAs Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Rayat Hossain Sarkar, who won in the June bypolls from Baranagar and Bhagabangola, respectively.

Finally, on July 5, the Speaker 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 during a special session of the assembly.

Meanwhile, ahead of the induction of four new TMC legislators—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)—Banerjee affirmed that conventionally, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker administers oaths in the assembly in case of bypoll victories.

The bypolls were necessitated 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. The by-election in Maniktala was necessitated because of the death of Sadhan Pandey in 2022.

Parliamentary Minister Sovandeb Chatterjee is expected to formally request Raj Bhavan for the Speaker to administer the oath to the four new MLAs within the assembly premises, following established practices.