Rebellion in Assam Congress on Monday showed up in the assembly as seven of their MLAs joined opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in protest on the law and order situation in the state, leading to suspension of 15 MLAs for the five-day Winter Session by the speaker.
Six BJP MLAs and nine from Congress, who had recently declared their allegiance to the opposition party, were suspended from the assembly by the speaker Pranab Gogoi for disobeying his ruling and creating noisy scenes.
Ahead of the start of the Question Hour on the first day of the session, the speaker gave the ruling that all the BJP members and those from Congress supporting it have been suspended from the house for the entire Winter Session.
When the house assembled, BJP MLA Jadav Chandra Deka demanded scrapping of the Question Hour and holding of a discussion on the "deteriorating law and order situation" in the state.
"The law and order situation is deteriorating day by day. Hindi-speaking people are being tortured and Jehadi activities are on rise. Allow us to discuss the issues by today itself," he saidJihadi
As the Speaker rejected his demand, all BJP MLAs stood up and shouted in support of their demand.
Immediately, all Congress MLAs, including the ministers, countered the opposition demand by shouting back.
The BJP MLAs then rushed to the Well of the House and pressed the Speaker with their demand. They were joined by the Congress MLAs, who had recently declared their allegiance to the opposition party but had not resigned from the ruling party. The strength of the Assembly is 126.
Thereafter, ll Congress MLAs also rushed to the Well and shouted slogans against BJP, leading to a face-off between the members.
With no signs of cooling of frayed tempers, the Speaker called the Marshals, who took the BJP MLAs out of the House, and announced his decision to suspend the members for the Winter Session.
After the suspension, normal business began in the House with Congress MLAs returning to their seats.
Outside the House, the BJP members shouted slogans against the state government and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who holds the Home portfolio.
They also demanded immediate resignation of the Chief Minister for "failure" to improve the law and order situation in Assam.
After the Question Hour, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rockybul Hussain demanded action against the nine Congress MLAs, who have decided to support BJP but not formally resigned from Congress.
Congress has sought termination of the membership of the nine rebel MLAs.
"Some of our MLAs walked out with BJP members and they have not resigned from the party. It proves that they have defected. There are many recommendations against defection in India. I request you to take action against them accordingly," Hussain told the Speaker.
On this, the speaker said, "I will take action as per rules."
With inputs from Anurag Kashyap.
