Rebellion in Assam Congress today showed up in the Assembly as seven of their MLAs joined opposition BJP in protest on the law and order situation in the state, leading to suspension of 12 MLAs for the five-day Winter Session by the Speaker.
Five BJP MLAs and seven from Congress, who had recently declared their allegiance to the opposition party, were suspended from the Assembly by Speaker Pranab Gogoi for disobeying his ruling and creating noisy scenes.
Speaker Pranab Gogoi gave the ruling just before the start of the question hour that "all the BJP members and the Congress MLAs protesting under the BJP banner" are suspended from the House for the entire five-day Session.
However, he clarified later to the media that "only those present in the House today are suspended". He, however, made it clear that there will be no review of the decision.
"BJP's Dilip Moran and Congress' dissident members Pallab Lochan Das and Pradan Barua were not present today. So they are not suspended and they can attend the House from tomorrow," Gogoi explained.
Earlier in the morning the Speaker's statement that all six BJP members and nine dissident Congress members were suspended led to confusion about the number of legislators against whom action has been taken.
When the House assembled, BJP MLA Jadav Chandra Deka demanded scrapping of the Question Hour and holding of a discussion on the "deteriorating law and order situation" in the state.
"The law and order situation is deteriorating day by day. Hindi-speaking people are being tortured and Jehadi activities are on rise. Allow us to discuss the issues by today itself," he said.
As the Speaker rejected his demand, all BJP MLAs stood up and shouted in support of their demand.
Immediately, all Congress MLAs, including the ministers, countered the opposition demand by shouting back.
The BJP MLAs then rushed to the Well of the House and pressed the Speaker with their demand. They were joined by the Congress MLAs, who had recently declared their allegiance to the opposition party but had not resigned from the ruling party. The strength of the Assembly is 126.
Thereafter, ll Congress MLAs also rushed to the Well and raised slogans against BJP, leading to a face-off between the members.
With no signs of cooling of frayed tempers, the Speaker called the Marshals, who took the BJP MLAs out of the House, and announced his decision to suspend the members for the Winter Session.
