Bengal governor has no right to disallow oath-taking of MLAs: Mamata

Kolkata, June 27 (PTI) Amid the row over the venue for the swearing in ceremony of the two newly elected TMC MLAs, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said Governor CV Ananda Bose has no right to prevent the process.

Banerjee alleged that she has received complaints from women who claimed that they felt unsafe going to the Raj Bhavan after reports of certain activities were reported from there.

"Nearly a month has passed but my MLAs — Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Rayat Hossain Sarkar — are unable to take oath. The Governor is obstructing them from doing so. It is the people who have elected them, not the Governor. He cannot deny them the right to take oath," Banerjee said at the state secretariat.

"Why must everyone go to Raj Bhavan? The Governor can authorise the Speaker or Deputy Speaker, or attend the Assembly himself. Women have informed me they are afraid to visit Raj Bhavan due to recent incidents reported there," she added.

The Governor had invited the two MLAs 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 on Wednesday afternoon.

In response, 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.