The leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, and three other BJP MLAs were suspended from the Assembly for 30 days after they allegedly entered the well of the House, tore up business papers and threw them at Speaker Biman Banerjee on
Monday morning.

Agnimitra Paul (Asansol South), Bankim Ghosh (Chakdah) and Biswanath Karak (Goghat) are the three other suspended MLAs.

BJP MLAs disrupted proceedings in the House after the Speaker allowed Paul to read an adjournment motion on the state government’s “obstruction” to hold Saraswati Puja at educational institutions but disallowed any discussion on it.

The BJP MLAs ran down to the well and raised slogans demanding chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement on the law and order in the state, following which they pointed fingers at Biman, tore up business papers and threw them at him.

A visibly irritated Speaker asked Adhikari to control his legislators or he would take strong action. But the unfazed BJP MLAs left the House and started protesting outside.

Later, the chief whip of the Trinamool Congress, Nirmal Ghosh, introduced a motion in the Assembly demanding the suspension of four BJP MLAs.

“Nirmal Ghosh moved a motion under sub-rule 2 of Rule 348 of the West Bengal Legislative Proceedings Act. The motion was passed with a voice vote,” Biman Banerjee said.

“They will be suspended till the end of this session or for 30 days, whichever is earlier,” he added.

The first phase of the ongoing budget session will end on February 20. The session will resume on March 10 and end on March 20.

“This was all pre-planned. They wanted to stop me from taking part in discussions on the governor’s address and the budget and so they suspended me. I went down to the well but the other MLAs didn’t go. So why are they suspended? Biswanath Karak didn’t even enter the House. He signed and left the Assembly in the morning,” Adhikari said.