Privilege motion against West Bengal LOP for allegedly threatening Income Tax raids to four rebel BJP MLAs to obstruct their speech in the House
Privilege motion against West Bengal LOP for allegedly threatening Income Tax raids to four rebel BJP MLAs to obstruct their speech in the House
The West Bengal Assembly on Thursday accepted the privilege motion against the Leader of the Opposition. Suvendu Adhikari who allegedly threatened Income Tax raids on four rebel BJP MLAs To disrupt his speech in the House.
A privilege motion against Mr. Adhikari has been accepted by the House and is being referred to the Committee of Privileges, Speaker Biman Banerjee announces the commencement of proceedings at 11 am
The Treasury Bench thumped the desk welcoming the announcement, while BJP legislators protested.
Following this, discussions began on the state budget, in which both ruling and opposition legislators participated.
Four rebel BJP MLAs Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj), Tanmay Ghosh (Bishnupur), Soumen Roy (Kaliaganj) and Biswajit Das (Bagda) had joined the TMC last year without leaving the House. He has not yet been disqualified under the anti-defection law and continues to occupy opposition benches.
When Mr Adhikari was speaking in the House on Wednesday on the Home Department budget, he repeatedly interrupted him “for lying and spreading rumours against the state government”.
He later complained to the Speaker that when a clearly enraged Mr. Adhikari left the House, he threatened IT raids for allegedly disrupting his speech.
The Speaker took cognizance of the complaint and said that the four MLAs would be provided security as per the rules of the House.
Mr Adhikari called the allegations baseless, and told reporters, “The way the ruling party tried to create unrest by using turncoat MLAs during my speech is unprecedented. Let them prove it (the allegations) first, Let them bring the privilege motion.”
One of the rebel MLAs, Soumen Roy, also alleged outside the House that Mr. Adhikari had threatened to shoot him.
“They have even threatened to shoot me. But I did not mention it in the assembly,” he claimed.
According to state government sources, the four MLAs have been provided additional security by the police.
The Speaker has also been requested to give separate seats to the MLAs in the House.