Oppn leaders protest wearing black bands in Parliament over MPs' suspension

Opposition party leaders staged a protest at the Gandhi statue in Parliament on Thursday wearing black bands against the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and KC Venugopal also participated in the protest.

The Opposition MPs carried banners and posters with slogans like "Save India" and "BJP kills Democracy".

As many as 12 MPs from the opposition parties were suspended from Parliament's winter session for allegedly creating ruckus on the last day of the Monsoon Session.

The suspension came after Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Monday wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who is the Vice President, for shocking violence on the last day of the Monsoon Session.

The suspended MPs include six from Congress, two each from TMC and Shiv Sena and one each from CPM and CPI.

The action has been taken against them for the 'indiscipline' in the monsoon session of the House.The suspended MPs are Elamaram Kareem (CPM), Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, R Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress, Binoy Viswam of CPI, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai of Shiv Sena.