KOLKATA: Amid the impasse over their swearing-in, the two newly elected Trinamool Congress MLAs arrived at the West Bengal assembly on Wednesday and said they would wait for Governor C V Ananda Bose till 4 pm if he comes to administer the oath of office to them or give his ascent for the Speaker to do the job.
The two, Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Rayat Hossain Sarkar, were elected from Baranagar and Bhagabangola constituencies respectively.
The Raj Bhavan has maintained that the oath-taking ceremony should take place in front of Bose at the Governor's House.
"I am a member of the Legislative Assembly, and I need to work from here. It is a general practice that in the case of a by-election, the Governor writes to the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to administer the oath. That is why I had written to the Governor, for his initiative," Bandyopadhyay said.
Sarkar also said he will wait along with Bandyopadhyay till 4 pm for the Governor to conduct the oath-taking ceremony or for his consent so that the swearing-in takes place in the presence of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Speaker Biman Banerjee said, "Oath-taking ceremony is a constitutional protocol and it is very unfortunate that we have to experience this kind of situation. If the Governor is interested, he can come to the Assembly and conduct the oath-taking ceremony. We will make all the arrangements. We do not have any problem. But there should not be any impasse," he told reporters.
The Governor had asked both MLAs to attend the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan on June 26.
Though, as per constitutional norms, the Governor can administer the oath to an MLA, conventionally, he assigns the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to do so in the Assembly in case of by-polls.