RANCHI: Seventeen MLAs of the BJP, including former ministers and a speaker, were suspended from the ongoing monsoon session of the Jharkhand assembly on Thursday for ‘disrespecting the dignity’ of the House.
Speaker Rabindranath Mahto suspended the BJP lawmakers after they sat on an overnight Dharna in the well of the House demanding chief minister Hemant Soren’s statement on the issue of regularisation of contractual employees engaged in different departments of the state government.
The MLAs were suspended under rules 299,300 and 310 of the Jharkhand Assembly’s business rules till 2 pm on Friday. The six-day long session, possibly the last before Jharkhand goes to polls later this year, concludes on Friday.
Mahto acted on a privilege motion moved by JMM MLA Sudivya Kumar against 18 MLAs and alleged that they had disrespected the House through their deeds. “In matters of privileges, the decision of the House is supreme. I will not act under your pressure,” Mahto said before pronouncing the suspension.
Leader of opposition Amar Kumar Bauri called Mahto biassed. “When he was just an opposition MLA (between 2014 and 2019), he had hurled shoes at the then speaker Dinesh Oraon. He goes to his party’s programs despite being the speaker and carries the JMM flag on political stages,” Bauri said.
JMM and Congress lawmakers claimed that the BJP was putting up a show. “On Wednesday, the CM assured the opposition that he will answer all their questions,” Sudivya said. “This is nothing but a Nautanki,” agriculture minister Dipika Pandey Singh said.
On Wednesday, the suspended BJP MLAs had sat on the well of the House seeking a statement from Soren. They held on even after the House was adjourned and well into the night.
“Lights and the airconditioner were turned off after sunset. We were not given water and were not allowed to use the washrooms. The marshalls threw us out into the lobby around 8:30 pm. Then, around 2 am at night, the Marshalls threw us out of the lobby as well,” Randhir Kumar Singh, former agriculture minister and BJP MLA from Sarath, told TOI.
“This government made tall promises to the youth before the 2019 elections but did not keep them. When we were asking questions, the CM shied away. If we are expelled, then we will hit the streets in protests,” Navin Jaiswal, another suspended MLA, said.
The suspended MLAs include Anant Ojha, Randhir Kumar Singh, Narayan Das, Amit Kumar Mandal, Neera Yadav, Kishun Kumar Das, Kedar Hazra, Biranchi Narayan, Raj Sinha, Koche Munda, Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Samri Lal, CP Singh, Khushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta, Alok Kumar Chourasia, Pushpa Devi and Aparna Dasgupta.