KOLKATA: BJP and Trinamool MLAs traded blows in the state assembly on Monday over the Bogtui killings, following which a Trinamool MLA had to be rushed to hospital with a bleeding nose, prompting the speaker to suspend five BJP MLAs.
Injured Trinamool MLA Asit Mazumder alleged that assembly opposition leader and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari had punched him on the nose. “The BJP MLAs hit us, the assembly opposition leader punched me on the nose,” he said. BJP MLAs, including Adhikari, however, countered by saying that cops in plain clothes and Trinamool MLAs had first attacked them when they were demanding a statement from CM Mamata Banerjee on the Bogtui incident.
Injured Trinamool MLA Asit Mazumder alleged that assembly opposition leader and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari had punched him on the nose. “The BJP MLAs hit us, the assembly opposition leader punched me on the nose,” he said. BJP MLAs, including Adhikari, however, countered by saying that cops in plain clothes and Trinamool MLAs had first attacked them when they were demanding a statement from CM Mamata Banerjee on the Bogtui incident.
The CM, who was in Darjeeling on Monday, called up assembly speaker Biman Banerjee and senior minister Firhad Hakim to get updates. The speaker later clarified that Adhikari, BJP chief whip Manoj Tigga and MLAs Shankar Ghosh, Dipak Barman and Narahari Mahato would remain suspended till the house was prorogued and the state government requested the governor to call a new session.
The suspension of the opposition leader is a rare occurrence in the assembly though it is not without precedent. “I was suspended once. There are similar instances from the Left Front period and before that when the Congress was in office. But this is not a routine affair,” Congress veteran and former assembly opposition leader Abdul Mannan said.
