`Suspension of Telangana demanding AP Cong MPs unprecedented'

"This is an unprecedented and extra-ordinary incident where the ruling party had to suspend its own members for not allowing the House to function", Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters.

"Never in the history of Parliament has such an event occurred before. But the situation arose as the government did not fulfil its election promise to form Telangana", Swaraj asserted.

Narrating the sequence of events, Swaraj said, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had met her earlier to seek opposition support to a government resolution seeking suspension of the eight Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh as they were not allowing the House to function.

BJP voted in favour of the resolution. When pointed out that her party has promised to support any Bill on formation of Telangana but had voted for suspension of these MPs pressing for the same demand, Swaraj said, BJP is committed to its stand but at the same time does not want to permit disruptions which would prevent conduct of other business.

"These Congress MPs were demanding implementation of the UPA coalition's promise of creating Telangana. They were protesting against their own party in the presence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. This government can neither manage its MPs nor fulfill its promises", the BJP leader claimed. (MORE) PTI RC