KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said that his constitutional job concerning TMC MLA Babul Supriyo's swearing-in ceremony was over, as he had nominated deputy speaker Asish Banerjee for doing his part.
Banerjee has expressed his unwillingness to administer the oath, saying that the responsibility should be given to Speaker Biman Banerjee.
"I have chosen, in the fitness of things, to nominate the deputy speaker for the job," Dhankhar told reporters on the sidelines of a programme at Haldia, adding that "so far as I am concerned, my constitutional job is over".
TMC MLA Tapas Roy explained that a candidate is deemed an MLA after receiving the "certificate of election" from the returning officer, but he or she won't be able to attend Assembly sessions without being administered the oath of office.
Stating that it was a tradition that oath to an MLA was administered either by the governor or the speaker, he alleged that Dhankhar was deliberately going against the norm.
Supriyo, a former Union minister of state in the Narendra Modi government, had left the BJP in a huff after being dropped from the post, and joined the TMC.
After giving up his Lok Sabha membership, bagged on a BJP ticket, Supriyo was nominated by the Mamata Banerjee-led party for the Ballygunge assembly seat byelection, which he won.
Last week, Dhankhar and Supriyo had engaged in a Twitter feud over oath administration.
"For the sake of the people of Ballygunge, who did not have a MLA for several months since the demise of Subroto Mukherjee, I would request your excellency @jdhankhar1 ji to reverse the decision & allow Honble Speaker to preside over my oath taking allowing me to start my work," Supriyo had tweeted.
The Raj Bhavan, in reply, issued a statement to say that "public domain request of Shri Babul Supriyo, elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from 161-Ballygunge Assembly constituency seeking Governor for administration of oath by honourable Speaker is not acceptable" as he had nominated the deputy speaker for the job.