7 BJP MLAs suspended from Delhi Assembly proceedings for interrupting LG’s address

The budget session of the Delhi assembly began Thursday with the LG outlining the policies, programmes and work of the AAP-led Delhi government in the fields of education, health, transport, social welfare, infrastructure, etc

New Delhi: Seven of the eight Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were suspended on Friday for allegedly interrupting the lieutenant governor’s (LG) address, officials aware of the matter said. The development comes a day after they were marshalled out of the House on Thursday.

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel   (File Photo)

As the House began its session on the second day on Friday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and the party’s chief whip in the Delhi assembly, Dilip Kumar Pandey, said the BJP MLAs disrupted the LG’s speech marking the opening of the budget session at least eight times, which “amounted to lowering the dignity of the House”.

Pandey then moved a proposal seeking that the matter be referred to the Delhi assembly committee on privileges and that the seven BJP MLAs should be suspended from the proceedings of the House, till the time the panel decides on the matter. The proposal was passed through a voice vote.

The budget session of the Delhi assembly began Thursday with the LG outlining the policies, programmes and work of the AAP-led Delhi government in the fields of education, health, transport, social welfare, infrastructure, etc.

As soon as Saxena began his speech citing the AAP’s achievements, BJP MLA and former leader of opposition Vijender Gupta interrupted.

Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel tried to restrain Gupta, but he continued to speak, following which the Speaker asked the House marshals to take Gupta out.

Later, as the LG began his address, other BJP MLAs continued interrupting him one by one as Saxena highlighted various achievements of the government.

After they defied the Speaker’s instructions to sit down and refrain from interrupting the LG’s address, he asked marshals to escort them out too.

Leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was the only BJP MLA who was not suspended, however, he walked out in protest, while other BJP MLAs protested against the decision of the House suspending its legislators.

Bidhuri in a press conference alleged that the written speech given by the Delhi government for the LG’s address was nothing but a “bundle of lies”.

Following the suspension, the BJP MLAs protested outside the House Gupta said that the suspension was a reflection of the dictatorship with which the AAP was running the Delhi assembly. “The voice of the opposition and the people of Delhi is being choked in the Delhi assembly,” he said.

Bidhuri said the BJP MLAs were suspended because the AAP government is scared of the opposition who have been raising the issue of corruption in the Delhi government and exposing their failures.