Administer oath to MLA in assembly: Speaker writes to West Bengal Guv

Speaker Biman Banerjee on Tuesday said he has written to Governor CV Ananda Bose to administer the oath to newly-elected TMC MLA Nirmal Chandra Roy in the state assembly itself.Roy won the Dhupguri assembly seat in West Bengals Jalpaiguri district in a by-election earlier this month.The governor recently wrote a letter to CM Mamata Banerjee, stating that he wants to preside over the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

Speaker Biman Banerjee on Tuesday said he has written to Governor CV Ananda Bose to administer the oath to newly-elected TMC MLA Nirmal Chandra Roy in the state assembly itself.

Roy won the Dhupguri assembly seat in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district in a by-election earlier this month.

''The governor recently wrote a letter to CM Mamata Banerjee, stating that he wants to preside over the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan. The CM forwarded me the letter. So, I wrote to the governor, requesting him to conduct the oath-taking ceremony in the assembly itself,'' Banerjee told PTI.

The assembly has a rich history and the swearing-in ceremonies of MLAs usually take place in the House, he said.

''Now it is up to the governor to decide,'' he said.

Later in the night, the Raj Bhavan claimed the government was ''playing hide-and-seek'' over the swearing-in.

In a statement, it said that the file regarding the swearin-in was placed before the governor on September 21, and the order regarding it was issued on the same day.

The order was communicated to the Parliamentary Affairs Department, it said.

''After that, the senior special secretary contacted the Speaker over the telephone and appraised him about the proposed oath-taking. But, the speaker informed (us) that the day being Saturday, which is a holiday, the assembly will not be made available for the purpose,'' it added.

The MLA was also informed through email and WhatsApp on September 22.

''In spite of intimation to the department, no arrangement was made to receive the file containing the order,'' it said.

Several attempts were made to send the file to the department, but the file could not be delivered due to different reasons.

Roy also did not turn up for the swearing-in on September 23 at Raj Bhavan, and failed to take the oath, the statement said.

''The Governor pins down the government for playing hide-and-seek with the swearing-in of Roy. He is still ready to have the oath administered at the earliest,'' the statement said.

In May last year, the then governor Jagdeep Dhankhar nominated deputy speaker Asish Banerjee to administer the oath to TMC MLA Babul Supriyo, instead of the speaker.