Ruckus in Himachal Assembly over suspension of Cong members

Shimla, March 2 The suspension of five Congress legislators in Himachal Pradesh, including the Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, for the entire Budget session rocked the state Assembly on Tuesday.

Amid the demand to revoke the suspensions, there were heated exchanges between the treasury and the ruling benches, following which the Congress members staged a walk out from the Assembly.

While Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur described it the most unfortunate incident in the history of the state, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj demanded that the Congress members should tender an unconditional apology to the Governor for the shameful act if they want to resolve the issue.

On Friday, Agnihotri along with four other Congress lawmakers, Harsh Vardhan Chauhan, Satpal Raizada, Sunder Singh and Vinay Kumar, were suspended for the entire Budget session after they allegedly manhandled Governor Bandaru Dattatraya.

Amid the ruckus on Tuesday, there was a verbal clash between Congress member Vikramaditya Singh and Deputy Speaker Hans Raj, after the Congress members alleged that the latter had jostled Congress MLAs, pushing them towards the passage from where the Governor was passing.

Later, Raj urged Speaker Vipin Singh Parmar for a privilege motion against Vikramaditya Singh for his conduct in the House.

As soon as the House assembled in the morning, Congress member Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu raised a point of order and demanded to revoke the suspensions of the members.

He termed the action illegal and said the Congress was not at fault and "if one goes by the sequence of events, the government is responsible for the incident".

He also said the government has acted in an undemocratic manner.

( With inputs from IANS )