Trinamul had invited West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the oath-taking ceremony of Mamata Banerjee as an MLA at the state Assembly after her mammoth victory in the Bhawanipore bypoll on 7 October.
Dhankhar said that the day of Miss Banerjee’s oath-taking as well as other MLAs will be decided only after a gazette notification is issued on the bypoll results.
Usually, the governor administers the oath of office at the Raj Bhavan but TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee informed that the governor has been invited to his party supremo’s oath-taking ceremony at the state Assembly instead.
In a response, the Governor said that “once the result of the by-elections is Gazetted and is brought to his notice”, he would take a call “as deemed appropriate under Article 188 of the Constitution”.
Dhankhar noted that, on 4 October, a request has been made by the state Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee to appoint him to administer the oath to the newly-elected MLAs.
“The practice and the proceedings at the level of the Assembly and the Government have apparently emanated under misconception of law,” Dhankhar said in response to the request.
Dhankar tweeted his official response, saying, “Raj Bhawan response on the administration of Oath/Affirmation to the Members elected to the WBLA in bye-election from 159-Bhabanipur A/C, and the adjourned poll in 56-Samserganj and 58-Jangipur A/Cs held on 30 September 2021. Once Gazetted Governor would take the call.”
Miss Banerjee shattered her previous record margin of victory in the Bhawanipore bypoll, clobbering BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal by more than 58,000 votes.