Mamata Banerjee, 2 other Trinamool Congress MLAs to take oath today

Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee will take oath as a member of West Bengal Assembly on Thursday. Along with her, two other newly-elected TMC legislators will also take oath at 2pm, according to a Twitter post from Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on October 5.

The governor said that the oath-taking ceremony was supposed to be held initially at 11.45 am, but the timing was changed following a request of state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee.

Banerjee won the Bhabanipur by-poll with a record margin of 58,835 votes. She needed to win the election to retain the chief minister's chair.

According to the Election Commission of India, Mamata Banerjee secured 85,263 votes which are around 71.90 per cent of the total votes polled in the by-election.

Banerjee's rival from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Priyanka Tibrewal got 26,428 votes and Communist Party of India CPI candidate Srijib Biswas secured 4,226 votes.

The other two TMC leaders also registered resounding win in the respective by-polls. Jakir Hossain was declared victorious by a huge margin of 92,480 votes from the Jangipur constituency, while Amirul Islam won from Samserganj by a margin of 26,379 votes.

The results were declared on Sunday. The polling was held in all three constituencies on September 30.

To continue as chief minister, Banerjee needs to be sworn in as a member of the assembly by November 4. TMC leaders said she wanted the formalities to be completed before the Durga Puja festival. Banerjee, who was defeated in the West Bengal assembly polls from Nandigram, was sworn in as chief minister on May 5, giving her six months to be elected to the legislature.

According to convention, it is the assembly speaker who administers the oath to legislators while the governor administers oath of office to ministers. But, Dhankar withdrew speaker Biman Banerjee's power to administer the oath few days before the September 30 by-polls.