Bhubaneswar: High drama unfolded in the Odisha assembly Tuesday, when members of the ruling BJP and Congress engaged in a scuffle as a senior opposition MLA attempted to climb the Speaker’s podium and later accused a saffron party legislator of holding his shirt collar and pushing him.
Tension erupted in the House during Question Hour as senior BJP lawmaker Jaynarayan Mishra rushed towards Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati, who was standing in front of Urban Development Minister K C Mohapatra when the minister was replying to a question.
Mohapatra was giving the reply amid a ruckus by opposition BJD and the Congress members.
Earlier, Bahinipati attempted to climb the Speaker’s podium to stall the proceedings but failed, with Speaker Surama Padhy allowing the Question Hour amid the din.
Thereafter, he approached the minister asking him to stop giving the reply as the opposition members were protesting in the well.
“Mishra caught hold of my shirt collar and pushed me. I was requesting minister Mohapatra to stop giving a reply when the House was not in order. I requested him with folding hands. But, Mishra suddenly came up to me and caught hold of my collar,” Bahinipati told reporters outside the House.
Soon, other members of the treasury bench rushed to the well of the House and scuffled with the Congress members who were present there, and raised anti-government slogans.
As the chaos prevailed, Speaker Padhy first adjourned the proceedings till noon and later three more times.
While the BJP and Congress members were seen pushing one another, the BJD members, though present in the well, did not engage in the scuffle.
The BJD and Congress members were protesting on various issues.
While the BJD members demanded a statement from Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi over Mishra’s remark referring to the merger of erstwhile Koshala with Odisha in 1936 as a “historical mistake”, Congress MLAs agitated over the alleged increase in crimes against women in the state.
The opposition members were also seen standing on the reporters’ table and raising slogans.
The Speaker later extended the adjournment for 10 minutes from noon and then again till 2 pm.
When the House reassembled at 2 pm, several BJP members, including Irashish Acharya, Babu Singh, Laxman Bag and Upasana Mohapatra, demanded action against the opposition members for “continuously disrupting the proceedings and disrespecting the woman Speaker of the assembly”.
As the opposition protests continued, the Speaker again adjourned the proceedings till 4 pm.
Both the BJD and the BJP legislature parties held separate meetings on the assembly premises to chalk out their strategies.
While Majhi was not present in the House, Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo presided over the meeting where discussions were held on the situation arising out of the scuffle.
The Congress MLAs also staged a sit-in near the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the assembly premises.
With the CM not coming to the House for the last two days, the BJD members, wearing black badges, launched a symbolic “search” for him on the assembly premises with a lantern. They also staged a sit-in in front of the CM’s chamber.
This was the second day that the House witnessed turmoil.
The opposition members were irked as the Speaker allowed Question Hour for around 30 minutes amid protests.
“For the first time, women members were panicked by the situation in the assembly today. The Speaker should not have allowed the proceedings when the House was in turmoil. Our senior leader was heckled by the BJP members,” Congress MLA Sofia Firdous alleged.
BJD member Arun Kumar Sahoo said, “We had never seen members of opposition and treasury bench clashing in the well of the House. This had never happened in the history of Odisha Assembly.”
BJP MLA Tankadhar Tripathy said that the behaviour of the opposition members in the assembly was unacceptable.
“Opposition is part of a democracy. Limits should be drawn in the House. While the Urban Development Minister was replying to a question in the House, the BJD and the Congress MLAs tried to break the mic and take away the files from his table. This is not acceptable in a democracy,” Tripathy said.
The BJP MLA also alleged that the opposition members threw posters at the Speaker.
They should apologise for their behaviour, he said.
PTI
