Bengal speaker seeks President Murmu's help in MLAs' oath venue row

The row over the venue for the swearing in ceremony of two newly elected Trinamool Congress MLAs intensified on Thursday as speaker Biman Banerjee wrote to President Droupadi Murmu requesting her intervention to resolve the deadlock even as the legislators refused to take oath at Raj Bhavan as directed by governor CV Ananda Bose and staged a protest in the assembly complex.

The legislators, Baranagar MLA Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Bhagabangola MLA Rayat Hossain Sarkar, insisted that the oath-taking ceremony is held in the assembly citing the controversy over allegations of molestation of a woman at Raj Bhawan, prompting West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to criticise the governor, asserting he has "no right to obstruct the process."

The controversy deepened when the MLAs declined the governor's invitation to take the oath at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.


Citing a convention, they claimed that bypoll winners are sworn in by the speaker or deputy speaker. Instead, the two MLAs sat on a dharna in front of the BR Ambedkar statue in the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha complex, demanding the governor facilitate their oath-taking in the assembly.

The governor, meanwhile, had left for New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon, leaving the issue unresolved.

Incidentally, the governor had made arrangements for the oath-taking ceremony at the Raj Bhawan on Wednesday. But Banjerjee claimed that "no one is willing to go to the Raj Bhawan as there are certain activities going on inside the Raj Bhawan. Women are scared to enter the Raj Bhawan".

During the Lok Sabha elections, a woman employee had filed a complaint at the Hare Street police station stating that she was allegedly assaulted by the governor.

(with PTI inputs)