Mamata Banerjee: Trinamool Congress (TMC) Supremo Mamata Banerjee has announced that she would not render her resignation after losing to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently-concluded West Bengal state assembly elections.
Interestingly, constitutional experts have remarked that the refusal by Mamata Banerjee has no constitutional relevance or validity. They further remarked that it doesn’t make any difference on whether Mamata resigns or not as the state’s governor was bound under the Indian Constitution to invite the leader of the single largest party to make attempts to form the government.
Mamata Banerjee-What Indian Constitution Says
According to constitutional experts, the previous assembly ceases to operate once election results have been declared and the outgoing cabinet loses all of its constitutional powers.
It was also stated that the state’s governor had the absolute “discretion” under Article 163 in situations that have not been anticipated by the Indian Constitution.
Justice K Sanjay Kishan Kaul said Mamata Banerjee is free to explore her legal options before courts but has no legal rights to continue in the CM office.
Former Attorney General KK Venugopal echoed Justice Kaul’s comments and remarked the Governor will simply the leader of the single largest winning party to swear in the new CM and cabinet members.
Lawyer Deepan Kumar Sarkar commented that the previous council of ministers ceases to exist on an immediate basis upon the new government being sworn to power in by the state’s governor.
Under Article 172, a state’s legislative assembly shall have tenure of 5 years and it gets automatically dissolved after this duration. On May this year, the tenure of the outgoing Bengal Assembly comes to an end as it was officially constituted on May 8, 2021.
BJP Cries Foul, What Next?
BJP has blasted the statement by Mamata Banerjee saying that the TMC head has no legal recourse to support her belief. It is likely that the CM’s oath ceremony would be held on May 9 on the birthday of Rabindra Nath Tagore.
