Kolkata: West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee administered oath to four newly elected Trinamul Congress MLAs on Tuesday amid a tussle with governor CV Ananda Bose over conducting the ceremony that was boycotted by the BJP.
The four TMC legislators are Krishna Kalyani of Raiganj, Mukut Moni Adhikari of Ranaghat South, Madhuparna Thakur of Bagda and Supti Pande of Maniktala. All of them won in the recent assembly bypolls. None of the BJP MLAs attended the oath-taking ceremony.
TMC supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was present, backed and hailed Mr Banerjee for his role. She said, “The speaker administered the oath to the new members following five rules. This has become a history in Bengal and India. Autocracy will not work.”
Ms Banerjee added, “I was a seven-time MP. Now I'm a three-time MLA. We have both the constitution and convention. There are instances of a combination of the both in our country to save democracy.” She also targeted the governor in a veiled reference.
Condemning Mr Bose's warning of imposing ₹500 as fine on the new TMC MLAs, the CM observed, “You should speak within line. You don't belong to a political party. Who will impose the fine against you? If you need money, we can arrange it for you.”
She further questioned the governor’s previous direction authorising Deputy Speaker Ashish Banerjee only to administer the oath to two new TMC MLAs Sayantika Banerjee and Rayat Hossain Sarkar earlier this month and wondered why Mr Bose did not allow the Speaker to perform the same.
