BJP legislators in Bengal move privilege motion against five TMC women MLAs

Kolkata: Three BJP legislators in Bengal, including two who have been suspended for the rest of the budget session, moved a privilege motion in the Assembly on Thursday against five TMC MLAs in connection with the bedlam in the House on March 7.

High drama was witnessed on the first day of the West Bengal assembly’s budget session with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar being forced to cut short his inaugural speech and table the address as BJP MLAs staged a noisy protest over the alleged violence and vote rigging in the recently concluded civic elections.

Two lawmakers — Sudip Mukhopadhyay and Mihir Goswami — were on Wednesday suspended from the session for creating disturbances in the House during Dhankhar’s speech.

The governor had in a letter to Speaker Biman Banerjee earlier in the week stated that the TMC MLAs had also ”contributed” to the disorder.

During the day, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, along with the suspended MLAs, introduced the privilege motion against ruling TMC legislators Sabina Yeasmin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Shashi Panja, Shiuli Saha and Ashima Patra.

The speaker said a decision in the matter would be taken in due course of time.

Majority of the BJP legislators were not present in the House in the first half of the day as they were busy staging a sit-in outside, demanding revocation of the suspension order against the party’s two MLAs.

On Tuesday, four TMC women MLAs had moved a privilege motion against BJP members for causing disturbance in the House.