BJP, Left take digs at Cong over Telangana, govt defends

BJP maintained that suspension of the eight Congress MPs for demanding a separate Telangana was an unprecedented event which had embarrassed the government as these legislators were speaking against their own party and its indecision on the issue.

"This is an unprecedented and extraordinary incident where the ruling party had to suspend its own members for not allowing the House to function. Never in the history of Parliament has such an event occurred before. But the situation arose as the government did not fulfill its election promise to form Telangana," Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters.

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 the 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. (MORE) PTI RC