News Analysis India

Tag: Bengal BJP MLAs

  • Suspended by Speaker, five West Bengal BJP MLAs including Suvendu Adhikari move Calcutta HC

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Five BJP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday filed petitions before the Calcutta High Court challenging their suspension from the West Bengal Assembly by Speaker Biman Banerjee.

    One of their lawyers said that the petitions are likely to be heard before the appropriate bench of the high court soon. The five BJP MLAs were suspended by the Speaker for future sessions this year for their alleged unruly conduct in the House on March 28, the last day of the Budget session.

    Besides Adhikari, the other MLAs include Dipak Burman, Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Tigga, and Narahari Mahato.

    The assembly had witnessed pandemonium on the day as ruling TMC and BJP MLAs scuffled after saffron party legislators demanded a statement by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the “worsening” law and order situation in the state.

  • Suvendu Adhikari writes to Bengal speaker, seeks disqualification of two MLAs

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Monday wrote to Speaker Biman Banerjee demanding disqualification of two MLAs who recently crossed over to the TMC after having won state elections on BJP tickets.

    In two separate petitions, which also had documents pertaining to the switchover attached with it, Adhikari sought the disqualification of legislators Biswajit Das and Tanmoy Ghosh at the earliest.

    “Both of them are free to join any party but they have to resign as BJP MLAs. Let’s see what measures the speaker takes. We will then decide on our next course of action,” Adhikari stated.

    The TMC leadership, however, hit back, asking the leader of opposition to urge his father, Lok Sabha MP Sisir Adhikari, to show the way.

    Sisir Adhikari, who won the general election from Kanthi in 2019 on a TMC ticket, joined the BJP ahead of this year’s assembly polls “Suvendu Adhikari should first ask his father Sisir Adhikari to resign as TMC MP as he joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls.

    Only then he should lecture others,” Tapas Roy, a legislator of the state’s ruling party, said.

    Since the declaration of assembly poll results on May 2, four BJP MLAs have switched over to the TMC.

    None of them, however, resigned as MLAs.

    Das and Ghosh joined the TMC in August.

    Another BJP MLA from Kaliaganj in North Bengal, Soumen Roy, followed suit on September 4.

    In June, BJP MLA and party’s national vice-president Mukul Roy returned to the TMC, four years after he had quit the Mamata Banerjee-led party to join the saffron camp.

    The BJP won 77 of the 292 Assembly seats that were up for polls.

    The Trinamool Congress won 213 seats, while ISF and GJM bagged one seat each.

    Bypolls are due in five seats, and fresh polls will be held in two seats, where elections were countermanded due to death of candidates.

    The BJP had earlier filed a similar petition seeking disqualification of Mukul Roy as MLA.

  • BJP withdraws central force protection for party MLAs, leaders in West Bengal

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The BJP’s national leadership has withdrawn the central force protection of more than 100 party MLA and leaders in West Bengal. The decision was conveyed to the Union Home Ministry on Thursday.

    The party made the decision after more than a dozen BJP MLAs refused to accept the protection, saying it would hurt the party’s public image. The MLAs said that the presence of gun-wielding security personnel around them was damaging the party’s people-friendly image.

    The party conducted a study into the concerns expressed by the MLAs and found them to be real. “The visuals of BJP leaders guarded by central forces while interacting with common people would hurt the party. Bengal voters have not seen an elected representative roaming around with central force personnel around him or her. It contradicts the political picture that the Bengalis have nurtured,” a senior BJP leader in Kolkata said.

    While addressing election rallies, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the Centre over the “excessive” use of central force personnel and their alleged “highhandedness” during the eight-phase Assembly elections in the state.

    After the ruling party secured a landslide victory, the presence of central forces around the party leaders was causing damage to the saffron camp’s image, admitted the BJP leader. Before the elections, as many as 18 BJP leaders used to get central force protection in the state. The number went up to 168, just ahead of the elections. 

    The BJP had accorded central force protection to a number of party candidates who defected from the Trinamool Congress. The protectees were seen doing mundane activities like shopping in local markets with central-force jawans around them.