Stalemate over two TMC MLAs' oath taking continues for second day

Two newly-elected Trinamool Congress MLAs sat on a dharna for the second consecutive day on Friday in front of B R Ambedkar's statue in West Bengal Assembly, as a stalemate over their demand to be administered oath in the House against Governor C V Ananda Bose's invite to do so in the Raj Bhavan continued.

Baranagar MLA Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Bhagabangola MLA Rayat Hossain Sarkar, who won in bypolls, refused to take oath in the Raj Bhavan as asked by Governor Bose and sat on a dharna in the assembly complex on Thursday.

They sat on dharna again on Friday at noon in front of the statue of Ambedkar in the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha complex, demanding that Bose facilitate the oath-taking ceremony in the assembly, enabling them to perform their duties as legislators.

The governor had invited the two MLAs to take the oath at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday. They declined the invitation, claiming that convention dictates that in the case of bypoll winners, the governor assigns the speaker or the deputy speaker to administer the oath.