BJP’s Shamik, TMC’s Nayna take oath as MLAs

Bhattacharya hinted at the issues he would take up in the assembly.

From left: Leader of Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra, newly elected Chowringhee MLA Nayna Bandyopadhyay, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, and Basirhat (South) MLA Shamik Bhattacharya at state Assembly, in Kolkata on Friday. (Source: Express Photo by Subham Dutta)

Shamik Bhattacharya of BJP, who won the byelection from Basirhat (South) assembly constituency was on Friday sworn in as the MLA by Speaker Biman Banerjee. Along with Bhattacharya, Trinamool Congress’s Nayna Banerjee, who won from Chowringhee, also took the oath as the new MLA in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

While Banerjee left the assembly after the swearing-in ceremony without speaking to the media, Bhattacharya hinted at the issues he would take up in the assembly.

Basirhat (South), being a border town, lends the BJP a chance to raise several of the issues it has been protesting against, among which are infiltration, demographic change, and cattle smuggling, among others. “The place I am representing is full of poor and people who are marginalised. It is plagued with problems like demographic change, infiltration, etc and I will raise these issues (in the Assembly). I will also use all opportunities to tear this government apart,’’ Bhattacharya said after the swearing-in.

Besides the Speaker and Deputy Speaker Sonali Guha, those present at the ceremony included state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee, minister for women and child development Shashi Panja, parliamentary secretary Tapas Roy and Leader of the Opposition, CPI(M)’s Surya Kanta Mishra. No one from the Congress was present at the swearing-in ceremony.

“This was no boycott. The thing is we did not give much importance to it,’’ Md Sohrab, leader of Congress Legislature Party, said.

First uploaded on: 27-09-2014 at 02:22 IST

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