4 New TMC MLAs To Take Oath: Will There Be Another Tussle Between Governor And Bengal Government? – News18

West Bengal saw political drama last month over the oath-taking ceremony of two Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs, including a letter war and protests. After the bypolls for four seats on July 13, four new TMC MLAs will have to take oath. Will there be a tussle between governor CV Ananda Bose and the Mamata Banerjee government this time too? This is the question doing the rounds in political circles.

Bengal Assembly Biman Banerjee on Monday: “We want newly elected members to join the assembly budget session which starts on July 22. We will follow the procedure. Let’s see what happens thereafter.”

With Assembly session starting on July 22, they may take oath in that session, say many.

Sources say that as per rule, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has sent a letter to the Governor informing that four new MLAs have been elected.

Last time, after much tussle, the Speaker had called for a special session to renew certain committees and allow the MLAs to take oath.

The Governor had nominated the Deputy Speaker, not the Speaker, to initiate oath, hours before the special session began.

Deputy Speaker Ashish Banerjee declared in session that as the Speaker was present in house, he won’t be able to initiate oath. Finally, he requested the Speaker to initiate the oath.

THE PROCEDURE

As per the procedure, the Governor nominates the Speaker to initiate oath. In the recent case, the Governor had asked the two MLAs to come to Raj Bhavan, which they did not do and sat for dharna outside the Assembly instead.

Sources told News18 that the letter has been sent to the Governor, but what happens later remains to be seen.