West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was on Thursday sworn in as an MLA of the West Bengal Assembly by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. Ms. Banerjee was sworn in following her victory in the Bhabanipur by-election , which she won by a record margin of 58,835 votes.
On May 5, Ms. Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister after her party returned to power for the third consecutive term, even though she herself lost in the Nandigram constituency by 1,956 votes.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates Amirul Islam and Jakir, who won in the by-elections from Samserganj and Jangipur, respectively, were also sworn in by the Governor in the State Assembly.
On an earlier occasion, the Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly administered the oath to elected MLAs. None of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were present at the swearing-in ceremony.
Meanwhile, byelections to four more Assembly seats — Khardah, Santipur, Dinhata and Gosaba — are scheduled to be held on October 30.
The Trinamool chairperson had earlier announced the names of the party’s candidates from the four seats — Sovandeb Chattopadhyay from Khardah; Braja Kishore Goswami from Santipur; Udayan Guha from Dinhata; and Subrata Mandal from Gosaba.
The BJP on Thursday also announced candidates for the four seats — Joy Saha from Khardah; Niranjan Biswas from Santipur; Ashoke Mondal from Dinhata; and Palash Rana from Gosaba.
Dutta returns to TMC
In another development, former TMC MLA Sabyasachi Dutta, who had joined the BJP and contested the Assembly polls, returned to the TMC. Mr. Dutta’s departure from the BJP comes after the party lost four MLAs and senior leaders like Mukul Roy and Babul Supriyo.
Mr. Dutta joined the TMC in the State Assembly. While leaders like Partha Chatterjee, who welcomed him into the party, said it was “good news” that he had joined the party, senior leader and MP Saugata Roy said such developments would not go down well with the workers of the party.
