Ruckus in assembly over expunged remarks, 4 BJP MLAs suspended
Times of India | 24 June 2025
123 Kolkata: Chaos broke out in the Bengal assembly on Monday after BJP lawmakers protested speaker Biman Banerjee's decision to expunge remarks made by them last week. An intense showdown between opposition and treasury benches led to marshals being called in to forcibly remove lawmakers from the House. Four BJP MLAs were suspended for the remainder of the assembly session.Tensions mounted when BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri raised a point of order asking why a speech made by him was expunged from the records. Last Thursday, BJP MLAs had raised questions about the West Bengal Sales Tax (Settlement of Dispute) (Amendment) Bill which was being discussed in the House. But when minister Chandrima Bhattacharya rose to answer those questions, BJP legislators staged a walkout.Later, speaker Banerjee decided to expunge the comments made by BJP lawmakers because they walked out before listening to the minister's response to the questions they had raised.On Monday, when Lahiri asked under which rule his remarks were expunged, a response by minister Bhattacharya triggered an uproar. Amid the commotion, Tilak Chakraborty, Trinamool MLA from Mahishadal, taunted BJP legislators by asking: "Who lost in Kaliganj?"The debate soon devolved into a shouting match. At one point, opposition legislators started moving towards the treasury benches. As tempers rose, speaker Banerjee called in marshals to remove some of the BJP lawmakers from the House. A melee ensued.BJP said its chief whip Shankar Ghosh fell on the ground while being restrained by security personnel and his spectacles broke and MLA Subrata (Kanchan) Maitra's watch suffered damage during the scuffle.Shortly after the incident, leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who was not present in the assembly during the melee, approached the speaker and in a dramatic face-off handed over the damaged spectacles and watch. He further alleged the marshals manhandled the MLAs and that he was personally targeted."I left Shankar Ghosh and Shantanu Pramanik's spectacles and Subrata Maitra's watch with the speaker," Adhikari told reporters, adding, "And then the speaker said, ‘remove the leader of opposition.' Is this the kind of language one expects from the chair?"Adhikari claimed he was surrounded by 20 female security personnel. "They wanted me to get into a physical altercation with the women. I kept my hands in my pockets and told them, ‘You will have to push me out by force'. I stood there and continued my protest," he said.Speaking to reporters, speaker Banerjee said 14 security staffers were injured while they were trying to remove the lawmakers from the House. "This is unfortunate. Such things should not occur in a parliamentary democracy," he said."I have asked the assembly secretariat to examine the report of injury to several staffers, report of damages to the spectacles and watch of BJP members and the damage to microphones. If the allegations are proved, we will recover the money from the salaries of legislators," he added.The speaker later announced suspensions of BJP MLAs Agnimitra Paul, Manoj Oraon, Deepak Barman and Shankar Ghosh for the remainder of the session. BJP said it will continue its protest on Tuesday, the last day of the session.