Legislators of the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 28 came to blows in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
The incident occurred when the BJP MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari were demanding a discussion in the Assembly on the Rampurhat violence. The BJP MLAs were protesting against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks on Rampurhat violence in public events and not making a statement in the House. A scuffle ensued between the legislators of the Treasury and Opposition Benches when the protesting BJP MLAs assembled near the chair of Speaker Biman Banerjee. First there was a scuffle between security personnel and the BJP legislators but after some time the TMC MLAs joined them.
TMC MLA Asit Majumdar suffered a nose injury and was bleeding. He was rushed to the State- run SSKM Hospital. BJP MLA and Chief Whip in the Assembly Manoj Tigga said that his clothes were torn and he was pushed and punched. Mr. Adhikari said personnel of the Kolkata Police in plainclothes attacked BJP MLAs after which Trinamool Congress MLAs rose from their seats and joined the attack. Mr. Adhikari said that several BJP MLAs had sustained injuries. TMC MLA and Minister Firhad Hakim said that every day the BJP MLAs were indulging in hooliganism.
‘Unwarranted and unfortunate’
Later in the day, the Speaker described the developments as “unwarranted and unfortunate” and said that “he felt very sad at the developments”. “The way they [BJP legislators] attacked women guards is very unfortunate. It would have been better had the incident not occurred,” the Speaker said.
Five BJP MLAs, including Mr. Adhikari and Manoj Tigga, were suspended from the Assembly. The three other suspended BJP MLAs are Narahari Mahato, Dipak Barman and Shankar Ghosh.
Commenting on the suspension, Mr. Adhikari said that everyone in the House was aware of his role and had he not intervened things would have turned worse. The Nandigram MLA said that if he was not allowed to speak in the House, he would continue to raise his voice outside the House.
Earlier at the start of the Budget Session of State Assembly, two BJP MLAs (Mihir Goswami and Sudip Mukherjee) were suspended while protesting during Governor’s address.
There had been no recent instances in the West Bengal Assembly where the MLAs of Treasury and Opposition had clashed with each other. Almost 10 years ago in December 2012, the legislators of the Trinamool Congress and Left parties had come to blows when the Left MLAs demanded a discussion on the Saradha scam.
