Speaking in the Assembly after four more newly elected TMC MLAs were administered oath by Speaker Biman Banerjee, the chief minister said: “(The Governor) should know that Raj Bhavan is selected and the Assembly is elected. He (Bose) can’t fine criminals or those involved in the NEET scam. He can only fine those who were elected. (He) should not be biased towards a political party.”

“Don’t you have enough money? Do you need tiffin money? Ask me, and I will arrange it,” the chief minister said in a retort to the Governor’s directive.

On Monday, when the Assembly convened for a 10-day session, two TMC MLAs — Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar – received letters from Governor, telling them that their swearing-in on July 5 was an instance of “constitutional impropriety”, and therefore if they would take part in Assembly proceedings or vote in the House, they would have to pay a fine of Rs 500 per day.

In the letter, the Governor contended that he had assigned Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee to administer the oath to the new MLAs, but instead Speaker Biman Banerjee presided over the swearing-in ceremony. When the Constitutional head of the state designated someone to administer the oath to the MLAs, the Speaker had no jurisdiction in the matter, the Governor wrote, citing Article 193 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Speaker Biman Banerjee on Tuesday administered oath to four TMC MLAs — Supti Pandey (Maniktala), Madhuparna Thakur (Bagdah), Mukutmani Adhikari (Ranaghat Dakshin), and Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj) – who were elected in the July 10 bypolls.

Backing the Speaker’s decision to administer the oath to the newly elected MLAs in the Assembly, the chief minister said: “I have read in media reports what the Governor said. I fully support the Speaker. What the Speaker has done is correct. There is a tradition in democracy. The tradition is that newly elected MLAs take oath in the Assembly.”

“Why didn’t the Governor come to the Assembly to administer the oath of the four MLAs? He was instead delaying the matter. The Governor should act as per law,” the chief minister said.

The face-off between the Trinamool Congress government and Governor Bose over the swearing-in ceremony began in the second week of June after the Governor asked the two MLAs — Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar — to come to the Raj Bhavan for taking oath and they refused.

The Governor, who normally assigns either the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to administer the oath to the legislators, sent an invitation to the MLAs to take oath at the Raj Bhavan on June 26. However, the letter reportedly did not mention who would administer the oath.

This led the TMC to announce that it would not attend the swearing-in ceremony. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also launched a scathing attack against the Governor for the delay in the oath. On July 4, Governor Bose authorised Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee to administer the oath in the Assembly, retracting his earlier stance that the MLAs would be sworn in at Raj Bhavan. However, during the one-day special session, Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee declined to administer the oath, citing that it would be inappropriate in the presence of the Speaker. Eventually, the Speaker administered the oath to the two MLAs.

The next day, the Governor wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, calling the swearing-in ceremony a “violation of the Constitution”.

“A report is being sent to the Hon’ble President about the Constitutional impropriety of the Speaker in ‘administering’ the oath or affirmation to the two newly elected MLAs. This Constitutional transgression has been done in spite of Hon’ble Governor appointing Deputy Speaker as the person before whom the two newly elected MLAs shall make and subscribe an oath or affirmation,” the Raj Bhavan posted on X soon after Sayantika and Sarkar were sworn in.

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