Finally, on Wednesday singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo took oath as the newly-elected MLA from Ballygunge assembly constituency almost a month after he was declared winner in the bypolls.
However, debates and controversies that had been taking place since the last one month have continued even after his oath-taking. The oath was administered by the deputy Speaker of the state assembly, Asish Banerrjee, as mandated by governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Speaker Biman Banerjee on the other day put the ball firmly in the governor’s court and said that Dhankhar would decide when Babul Supriyo would take the oath.
Earlier, there was a standoff regarding administering of oath to Babul, after the governor had returned the file asking details of the earlier proceedings in the assembly, which he claimed had not been made available to him despite repeated requests to the Speaker.
After administering the oath, the deputy Speaker expressed displeasure over his administering the oath, instead of Speaker Biman Banerjee.
“I did not want to administer the oath in place of the Speaker. But ultimately it was getting very late. The governor tried to create a divide between me and the Speaker. But we are together,” Mr Banerjee said.
The Speaker, during the swearing-in ceremony, despite being in the assembly premises, did not come to the spot.
After swearing-in as MLA, Babul Supriyo said that a new chapter has begun in his political life from Wednesday. “I thank chief minister Mamata Banerjee for providing me with this opportunity and from now onwards I will work according to her instructions,” he said.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya said that unnecessary stubbornness expressed by the state government on this issue led to the delay in the Supriyo’s oath-taking. “The governor had the prerogative of either administering the oath himself or mandating anyone else in doing so. The governor mandated the deputy speaker. But it is the state’s ruling party, who made an issue out of it and delayed the process,” he said.
The Congress and CPM have blamed both the governor and the state government for the delay.
“The entire sequence of events proves that in West Bengal fruitless exercises go on instead of constructive work,” said senior Congress MP and state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. CPM central committee member Dr Sujan Chakraborty said that unnecessary stubbornness from both ends led to such developments.
Babul Supriyo was elected from the Ballygunge assembly constituency in a bypoll necessitated after the seat fell vacant following death of senior minister Subrata Mukherjee.