NEW BENGAL GUV TAKES OATH, POLITICAL ROW OVER SEATING

Former bureaucrat C V Ananda Bose on Wednesday took oath as governor of West Bengal, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) caused a row over the seating arrangement at Raj Bhavan and Congress alleged violation of “principles of democracy”, and skipped the ceremony.

Bose was administered the oath of office by chief justice of Calcutta high court Prakash Shrivastava in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and speaker Biman Banerjee.

A retired Kerala cadre IAS officer of the 1977 batch, Bose was named the new governor on November 17, replacing Manipur governor La Ganesan, who was holding the additional charge of Bengal since July after the incumbent Jagdeep Dhankar got elected as Vice-President of India.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly Suvendu Adhikari skipped the ceremony, alleging the TMC government “insulted” him by allotting him a seat beside two MLAs who defected to the ruling party without resigning from the BJP after last year’s elections.

Both Adhikari and state BJP chief Sukanta Majumar were allotted seats behind the ones earmarked for TMC Rajya Sabha members.