Five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators, including leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari and the party’s chief whip Manoj Tigga, were suspended from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly after a fight broke out between the MLAs of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the main opposition BJP in the House on Monday.
While a TMC legislator had to be rushed to the hospital with a bleeding nose, the opposition alleged that at least eight BJP legislators were injured by the TMC members and security personnel. The fight broke out when the BJP legislators were staging a protest in the well of the house demanding the chief minister’s statement over the Birbhum massacre and a discussion over the alleged deteriorating law-and-order in the state.“Suvendu Adhikari hit me. My glasses were broken when I went to stop the BJP legislators with folded hands as they were engaged in a scuffle with the security personnel inside the Assembly,” said Asit Majumdar, TMC legislator from Chinsurah in Hooghly district.
Adhikari, however, refuted the charges saying that he stopped the fight.“There were at least 400 witnesses including legislators, security personnel and media. I stopped the fight. I never engaged in such fights,” Adhikari said.
Along with Adhikari and Tigga, three other BJP legislators, Narahari Mahato, Shankar Ghosh and Dipak Barman were also suspended.BJP legislators have been staging protests every day in the assembly ever since the Birbhum massacre happened.“Eight persons were burnt alive in Birbhum. In North 24 Parganas, an 11-year-old girl was raped and tortured, and she is now battling for her life in the hospital. We demanded a statement from the chief minister and a discussion in the house. When the speaker declined BJP legislators were staging a protest democratically. It was then that the TMC MLAs and security personnel hit the BJP legislators. Eight were injured,” said Adhikari.
Manoj Tigga, chief whip of the BJP in the Assembly said that he was dragged by the TMC MLAs, his shirt was torn, and he was hit in the chest. Later the BJP staged a walkout shouting slogans.The TMC too hit back saying that the BJP was behaving indecently in the house and had attacked the TMC MLAs.“The Legislative Assembly is not a place where you fight and ransack. Every day, the BJP is disrupting the proceedings and behaving indecently. They regularly stage agitations near the speaker’s seat. Today they broke a light. They attacked the marshals. When our legislators went to stop them, they were attacked,” said Firhad Hakim, state minister and TMC legislator.
