Constitution empowers me to decide whom to entrust administering oath to MLAs: Bengal Governor Ananda Bose

Kolkata: As the deadlock over the swearing-in of two newly elected TMC legislators continued, West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Wednesday said the Constitution empowers him to decide who should be entrusted with the task of administering oath to MLAs.

Bose said he himself wanted to administer the oath to the new legislators at the Raj Bhavan, but the Speaker insisted that the governor preside over the swearing-in at the legislative assembly.

“I had no objection to fixing the assembly as the venue, but because of the objectionable letter from the Speaker, undermining the dignity of the office of Governor, that option was not found feasible,” Bose told PTI over phone from New Delhi.

The impasse over the swearing-in of TMC’s Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Rayat Hossain Sarkar continued on Wednesday, as the governor refused to hold the programme in the assembly as requested by them, and instead left for New Delhi.

Miffed by the development, the two MLAs said they would again write to the governor and continue their sit-in protest on Thursday, too, inside the assembly premises.

A senior Raj Bhavan official said that Bose, in his letter to the Speaker, had also indicated that he would prefer to nominate the senior-most member of the assembly from the SC or ST community before whom the newly elected MLAs would take oath.

However, the Speaker, in his reply, said he would prefer to complete the task himself.

The official informed that in case the MLAs start attending assembly sessions without taking oath, they would be fined Rs 500 per day as per the law.

Earlier in the day, Speaker Biman Banerjee had expressed displeasure over the situation and accused Bose of turning the swearing-in ritual into an "ego battle".

He claimed that an impasse was deliberately created for reasons best known to the governor.

"We were waiting for the governor to come to the assembly, but he didn't turn up. The governor has turned this into an ego battle. He is exercising his powers. I will also consult legal experts to understand my powers," Banerjee said.