Kolkata: The row over the venue for the swearing-in ceremony of the two newly elected TMC MLAs escalated on Thursday as the legislator refused to take oath in the Raj Bhavan as asked by Governor CV Ananda Bose and sat on a dharna in the assembly complex.
Baranagar MLA Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Bhagabangola MLA Rayat Hossain Sarkar sat on the dharna in front of the BR Ambedkar statue in the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha complex and demanded that Bose enable them to perform their duties as legislators by facilitating the oath-taking ceremony in the assembly.
The governor had invited the two MLAs, who were elected in the recent bypolls, to take the oath at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday. However, they declined the invitation, claiming convention dictates that in the case of bypoll winners, the governor assigns the speaker or the deputy speaker to administer the oath. The governor refused to hold the programme in the assembly and went to New Delhi.
"We had waited till 4 pm on Wednesday for the governor to conduct the oath-taking ceremony, but he didn't come. Today, we sat on dharna before the statue of Ambedkar with the demand that our constitutional right to work for the people be facilitated without any delay," Bandopadhyay told reporters. The dharna began around 12.30 pm and continued till 4 pm.
After the dharna, Bandopadhyay said she would again write to the governor demanding that the ceremony be conducted in the assembly. Sarkar said that he was not being able to work for the people despite being elected, as the swearing-in ceremony was not happening. "We are not being able to work and losing vital time. Why is the governor not coming here and conducting the ceremony?" he asked.
Speaker Biman Banerjee on Wednesday accused Bose of turning the swearing-in ceremony into an "ego battle". The governor told PTI from New Delhi on Wednesday night that the Constitution empowers him to decide who should be entrusted with the task of administering oaths to MLAs.
"I had no objection to fixing the assembly as the venue, but because of an objectionable letter from the speaker, undermining the dignity of the office of governor, that option was not found feasible," he said.
