Ruckus in Assam Assembly over Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification; 3 MLAs suspended

Guwahati, Mar 29 (PTI) The Assam Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a ruckus after the Congress introduced an adjournment motion to discuss the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha following a court verdict.

Speaker Biswajit Daimary was forced to adjourn the House twice, and suspended two Congress MLAs and an Independent legislator for the day.

As soon as the Question Hour was over, Daimary allowed Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia to raise the notice and asked him to speak on the admissibility of the motion.

“We want to send a resolution to the President of India requesting her to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution is same for all and the executive must act fairly to protect it,” the Congress leader said.

Mentioning various clauses of the Constitution in relation to the disqualification of a parliamentarian, he stressed that the Constitution was violated by the disqualification of Gandhi.

Replying to the motion, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “It’s unprecedented that we’re expressing opinions on a judicial matter here. I know that a decision was taken at Congress Legislature Party last night to create noise here.”

This led to a noisy scene with Congress MLAs, followed by all other opposition members from AIUDF, CPI (M) and Independent, moving to the well of the House.

They raised slogans in favour of Rahul Gandhi and displayed placards. The BJP members too rushed to the well and raised slogans denouncing Gandhi.

The Speaker then moved to the next item of the House and allowed tabling of the various standing committee reports. After that, Daimary adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

As soon as the House reassembled, Sarma stood to give his reply, which was objected by all opposition members saying “the matter was over”.

As the chief minister was insisting on giving a reply, the Congress MLAs and Independent member Akhil Gogoi again moved to the well showing placards.

Daimary repeatedly asked Gogoi and others to go back to their seats, but nobody paid any heed.

Following this, he suspended Gogoi and Congress MLAs Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha and Jakir Hussain Sikdar from House for the entire day. The House marshals dragged the three legislators out of the House.

Sarma said, “I propose to expel Akhil Gogoi and Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha for this entire session till April 5.” The budget session of the Assam Assembly is scheduled to end on that day.

The Speaker then adjourned the House for 20 minutes again, the second time in a day, over the issue.