A day after three BJP MLAs were suspended from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly for the rest of the winter session, the House witnessed pandemonium as their party colleagues staged a walkout demanding the decision, which they termed "illegal", be revoked.
BJP MLA Suresh Bharadwaj was yesterday suspended from the Assembly for the rest of the winter session for occupying the Chair of the Himachal Pradesh Speaker. Two other party legislators were suspended for approaching the podium.
As Speaker B B L Butail refused to entertain BJP's demand and said the matter can be taken up after the question hour, party legislators staged a walkout insisting parliamentary procedures were not followed for suspending the three MLAs.
However, they returned after some time and participated in Assembly proceedings.
Terming the suspension "illegal" and demanding its revocation, Leader of Opposition, Prem Kumar Dhumal claimed, "These members have not been served suspension notice by the (Vidhan Sabha) secretariat. They were stopped from entering the Assembly this morning."
"As the Speaker didn't not turn up much after 15 minutes of adjournment of the House and the deputy Speaker was not in the Assembly, Bhardwaj, who is also in the panel of presiding officer, decided to presideover the House and sat on the chair," Dhumal said.
However, deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi said he was very much present in the Assembly when Bharadwaj took the seat.
Later talking to mediapersons, Dhumal claimed the decision to suspend thethree legislators from the House for the winter session was "illegal".
"We have demanded discussion on their suspension but were notallowed to speak in the House, for which decided to stage a walkout," hesaid.
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