West Bengal: Speaker accepts privilege motion against Suvendu after his I-T raid ‘threat’ in House
West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Thursday accepted a privilege motion against Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari after he allegedly threatened four rebel BJP MLAs with income-tax (I-T) raids for interrupting his speech in the House the previous day. The MLAs also alleged that Adhikari threatened to shoot them.
The motion has been forwarded to the Privilege Committee, which will submit its report by March 26, said Banerjee at a press conference here.
“There was a threat in the record of the Legislative Assembly. This is unprecedented in the history of the West Bengal assembly. The decision has been taken after examining it,” said the Speaker.
BJP chief whip BJP Manoj Tigga said many allegations against Adhikari have not been substantiated. “There is no truth to these allegations.”
The motion was moved by the four rebel MLAs — Biswajit Das (Bagdah), Tanmoy Ghosh (Bishnupur), Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj) and Soumen Roy (Kaliaganj). They joined the TMC after the Assembly polls last year and still occupy the Opposition benches. They are yet to be disqualified under the anti-defection law.
On Wednesday when Adhikari was speaking on the Home Department’s Budget, the four MLAs interrupted his speech. They alleged that Adhikari was “lying and spreading canards against the state government”.
They later complained to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that Adhikari, while exiting the Assembly, “threatened them with I-T raids”. They also alleged that the BJP MLA had threatened to shoot them.
Later, the State Home Department increased the security cover of the rebel MLAs.
Adhikari had on Wednesday told reporters that the proof of burden lies with the rebel MLAs. “The Trinamool is obstructing the speech of the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. Our legislators have made specific statements. My speech on the issue of the murders of Anis (former student leader) and a councilor has been deliberately obstructed, and the chief minister herself has provoked it,” Adhikari had said.
