The State Assembly today resolved to initiate a “privilege motion” against Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, in connection with charges of intimidation where he allegedly threatened to murder and cause IT raids at the residences of four former BJP MLAs who defected to Trinamul Congress in the Assembly on Wednesday.
“Since, prima facie, the charges against the leader of the Opposition levelled by the four lawmakers were found to be true as per the Assembly records, which I am in possession with, the motion of privilege against the leader of the Opposition, as demanded by the legislators, was accepted and sent to the privilege committee for its initiation. I asked the panel to submit its report by 28 March”, said Biman Banerjee, the speaker of the state Legislature.
“It was unfortunate and unprecedented that the leader of the Opposition was issuing murder threats to fellow lawmakers in the Assembly. It was dangerous for democracy”, quipped the Speaker. Suvendu, on Wednesday allegedly threatened four lawmakers to TMC- Tanmay Ghosh, Biswajit Das, Krishna Kalyani and Soumen Roy. They defected to TMC.
The incident happened after Adhikari was accused by the four MLAs of trying to disrupt the address of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee who replying on the state police budget. Manoj Tigga, the MLA and the chief whip of the BJP legislature party, however, denied those allegations, saying, “There were many charges against the leader of the Opposition made earlier too but those could not be substantiated. Instead, the Speaker should initiate action against the four MLAs under the anti-defection law.”