Swearing-in row dominates West Bengal Assembly’s monsoon session

West Bengal Legislative Assembly Monsoon Session sees row over swearing-in of newly elected MLAs on July 22.

The Monsoon Session of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly started on July 22 amidst the row over the swearing-in of newly elected MLAs.

Speaker Biman Banerjee said the four newly elected Trinamool Congress MLAs would take oath in the House on July 23.

“As per convention and under Article 188 of the Constitution, the four newly elected members, who won in the recent by-elections, will be sworn in by me,” he told journalists. He added that the swearing-in would take place in the Assembly before the House resumed at 1 p.m. on July 23.

The four MLAs — Supti Pandey from Maniktala, Madhuparna Thakur from Bagda, Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin — were elected in the byelections held on July 10. Earlier, the Speaker had written to Governor C.V. Ananda Bose about the MLAs being administered the oath in the House.

Article 188 of the Constitution states that “every member of the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council of a State shall, before taking his seat, make and subscribe before the Governor, or some person Appointed in that behalf by him, an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule”.

Ahead of the byelections, two MLAs — Sayanikta Banerjee from Baranagar and Reyat Hossain Sardar from Bhagwangola — were sworn in by the Speaker on July 5, despite the Governor directing Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee to do the honours.

The Raj Bhawan had informed the two MLAs that they had not been administered oath as per established procedure and so would be fined if they were to attend the proceedings of State Assembly.