Twelve days after being elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Trinamool Congress MLA Babul Supriyo awaits being sworn in as an MLA, the reason being the differences between the government and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The Governor in a tweet on Thursday said the Assembly Secretariat and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee should provide him with details regarding various House proceedings. “Reports in section of media re: oath @SuPriyoBabul as MLA misleading. Under article 188 of constitution, he has to make & subscribe oath before ‘Governor, or some person appointed in that behalf by him’. Urgent response sought on issues @itspcofficial is awaited from WBLA,” he tweeted. The Twitter account of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee is @itspcofficial
Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee had said the MLA should be sworn in after winning the election. Otherwise, the MLA is deprived of many of his constitutional rights and the people of the constituency will suffer because of this.
Governor sends back file
Sources said that a file was sent to Mr. Dhankhar seeking his consent so that the Speaker could administer the oath to Mr. Supriyo. The Governor had sent back the file and sought answers to certain queries. The Trinamool Congress leadership had said that as Mr. Supriyo was an irritation to the BJP, the Governor was delaying his swearing-in.
On Friday, the Speaker suggested that Mr. Supriyo could approach his office if he considered there was a delay in his swearing-in. Mr. Supriyo told journalists that he was not aware of any tussle resulting in a delay in his swearing-in.
Mr. Supriyo, who was elected from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019, quit the BJP to join the TMC in 2021. Earlier this month, he won the bypoll from Ballygunge by a margin of 20,228 votes over CPI(M) candidate Saira Shah Halim.
