The West Bengal Assembly session will begin two hours after midnight on March 7, according to a note sent to the government, signed by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Tweeting the note, Dhankar wrote: “Assembly meeting after midnight at 2.00 A.M. is unusual and history of sorts in making, but that is Cabinet Decision.”
It all began with a note sent by the state to the Governor on February 17 recommending that an Assembly session be called on March 7 at 2 PM. However, the recommendation was returned “for constitutional compliance as the Governor summons the assembly on the recommendation made by the Cabinet after due compliance of Rules of Business under article 166(3) of the constitution,” Jagdeep Dhankhar had earlier tweeted on February 19.
In the ensuing back and forth communication, a typing mistake changed the time from 2 PM to 2 AM.
The Governor then called the Bengal Chief Secretary to discuss the issue this afternoon. “Finding the timing of session after midnight somewhat odd, an outreach effort was made by calling Chief Secretary for urgent consultations before noon today,” Dhankhar tweeted.
But as the Chief Secretary failed to show up, Dhankhar called it an “usual compliance failure” as he tweeted his go-ahead to the cabinet proposal to call an Assembly session on March 7.
Speaking about the Governor’s tweet, Bengal Speaker Viman Banerjee said that ‘2 AM’ was a typing mistake which the Governor could have rectified. But since he did not, the Assembly session will now start after midnight. The first two notes sent by the state had mentioned the time as 2 pm. But in the later notes to the Governor, the mistake was made, he added.
Mamata Banerjee spoke with Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on the phone and informed him that a new note will be sent after the Cabinet meeting on February 28.
However, if the West Bengal Assembly does begin at 2 am, it will be a first in the country.
