Kolkata, May 13 -- Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday, took oath as an MLA from the Bhowanipore Constituency, signifying that he will vacate the Nandigram seat. Along with Adhikari, about 150 other MLAs took the oath of office.
A total of around 150 legislators took the oath in the Assembly with pro-tem speaker Tapas Roy administering it. Adhikari, who won both the Bhowanipore and Nandigram Assembly seats, was the first to take the oath.
"Someone else will be elected as MLA from Nandigram (in a bypoll). But I will not let the people there feel my absence. I will fulfil all development promises I made to the people of Nandigram alongside the rest of the state," Adhikari told reporters at the assembly premises.
He referred to the 2009-2016 tenure of Phiroja Bibi as a TMC MLA from Nandigram when he was a frontline leader of Trinamool Congress party.
"I had provided all support to Phiroja Bibi, the mother of a martyr in the 2008 Nandigram police firing, although I wasn't officially the MLA from that seat. I will play a similar role this time, too," said Adhikari.
Right from his entry to the Assembly, Adhikari stole the spotlight, particularly through his act of bowing his head in reverence on the steps of the main building that houses the Assembly floor.
He was welcomed by the pro-tem Speaker Tapas Roy, the BJP MLA from the Maniktala Constituency.
In accordance with tradition, a Guard of Honour was accorded to him within the Assembly premises. He then garlanded the statue of B.R. Ambedkar and proceeded to the chamber designated for the Chief Minister within the Assembly building, where he performed a ritualistic worship.
Later, Adhikari posted a video of this worship ceremony on social media. The video shows him performing the rituals while ringing a bell, accompanied by a priest standing beside him; The sound of a conch shell can also be heard in the background. From the Chief Minister's chamber, he moved to the Assembly Hall.
Adhikari in the recently concluded Assembly polls, defeated Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee from Bhowanipore by a margin of 15,105 votes and defended his own Nandigram seat by 9,665 votes.
As many as 156 out of 293 MLAs were supposed to take the oath on Wednesday, among whom 150 did. The rest will do the same on Thursday.
Sajal Ghosh, BJP MLA from Baranagar, was one of those who could not turn up because of some urgent work . He informed the pro- tem speaker that he will take the oath on Thursday.
Biman Banerjee, who was the Speaker during the former government's regime, raised questions over the use of the House for the oath-taking.
"The House was used for the oath-taking ceremony today (Wednesday), for which permission needs to be taken. Until and unless the new Speaker is selected, the previous Speaker is in charge. I was surprised to see the oath-taking ceremony being held inside the House, which had not happened on any occasion earlier. As per the rules of the Assembly, only the Speaker can accord permission to hold such a ceremony inside the House. I am not aware under whose permission the House was used," he said.
Meanwhile, the inaugural day of the oath-taking ceremony of the new West Bengal MLAs on Wednesday was marked by a state-sponsored fish meal for the legislators.
The symbolic gesture lent the Assembly proceedings a distinctive cultural and ideological character, while also offering a latent statement on the Opposition's pre-poll warnings of a crackdown on people's non-vegetarian food habits by the saffron dispensation.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.