Governor ‘misses’ Kunal’s ‘deadline’ on oath ceremony

Kolkata: Governor C V Ananda Bose ‘missed’ Trinamool Congress’s former Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh’s Monday 3pm ‘deadline’ to administer oath to TMC MLAs Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar. Ghosh, however, didn’t bring up the ‘deadline’ on Monday, and said, “The two MLAs are waiting for a long time. Why are they not administered the oath? We may have political differences, but still I respect him and hope he will resolve it soon.”
Bose may visit Chopra on Tuesday to meet the couple who were publicly assaulted by local strongman Tajemul Islam alias JCB, an incident which he termed “barbarous”.
The governor also sought a report from CM Mamata Banerjee on the incident.
On Friday, Ghosh had said if the oath ceremony was not held within his ‘deadline’, he would release “Hotel Taj Palace: The Untold Story” on Tuesday.
Bose and his nephew have been accused of sexual abuse by a Kolkata-based Odissi dancer. A complaint has been lodged at the Hare Street police station regarding this. Kolkata Police has sent this “zero FIR” to Delhi Police. Since the governor has constitutional immunity, the FIR had been lodged against the governor’s nephew in this case, police sources said. Ghosh, however, did not make any reference to this on Monday.
Speaker Biman Banerjee told reporters, “I had requested the governor to come to the assembly and administer oaths to the two Trinamool MLAs. If he has any problem in coming to the assembly, as per the convention he should allow the speaker of the House to do the needful.” Banerjee said that Sayantika and Reyat had sent a written request to the governor on Monday, seeking the completion of the oath ceremony at the earliest.
“They are members of the assembly. So ideally their oath ceremony should take place in the assembly. There is a precedent of the governor coming to the assembly and administering oaths to the new MLAs. The current Vice-President of India, Jadeep Dhankhar, did the same when he was the Bengal governor. There is no question of ego here,” Banerjee said.
Sayantika said, “I hope that the governor will understand the importance and arrange for the oath ceremony by coming to the assembly.”
(With agency inputs)