Odisha BJP leaders protest suspension of MLAs, say will agitate whole night

BJP MLAs who were suspended from the ongoing Budget session staged a demonstration near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the Assembly premises, protesting the suspension order.

"We will sit on dharna the whole night. They (the ruling party) are trying to strangle us by not letting us speak in Vidhan Sabha. Speaker is also treating this matter casually. We will meet Governor and raise our concerns," Mukesh Mahaling, BJP MLA told .

Odisha Assembly on Saturday witnessed ugly scenes after shoes, microphones and other items were hurled at Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro's podium following noisy protests over the alleged arbitrary passage of some bills in the House.

Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik said, "I am not favouring the shoe hurling incident. We could beg an apology for any such incident but I am unaware of who all were involved in the incident. But the Speaker has curtailed all the constitutional guidelines today. He is acting like a worker of a party. As a Leader of Opposition, I was not allowed to speak. The bills were passed arbitrarily amid heavy ruckus. On Monday, we will meet the Governor and apprise him about arbitrary passing of bills."

He added that the BJP members would spend the night at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Assembly premises and hold a press meet at 10 am on Sunday at BJP state headquarters. Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro requested them to end their protest. But the BJP MLAs are sitting under the statue now also.

They will continue protest till Sunday morning, said BJP leaders Kusum Tete and Dr Mukesh Mahaling.

Three BJP MLAs, Jayanarayan Mishra, Bishnu Prasad Sethi and Mohan Majhi have been suspended for the remaining periods of the session by the speaker as demanded by Congress and BJD MLAs.

Though it is unclear who hurled such objects in the House, government chief whip Pramila Mallick had alleged that shoes, earphone and papers were hurled by deputy Leader of Opposition Bishnu Sethi, MLA Jaya Narayan Mishra and Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi.After Question Hour, ruckus broke out in the Odisha Assembly as the Speaker refused to allow adjournment motion over the issue of 'mining business' brought by the Congress.

BJP MLAs also created pandemonium demanding a discussion on mining scam. Later, shoes, headphones and other items were hurled at the Speaker's podium.

( With inputs from ANI )