The BJP on Tuesday walked out of the West Bengal Assembly after Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay objected to certain remarks made by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s poll defeat in Nandigram.

Adhikari today alleged that the Speaker of the state Assembly is biased towards the state government since he is not protecting the Opposition party MLAs in the House. Adhikari said the BJP MLAs staged the walkout today because the “treasury bench is trying to choke the voice of the Opposition party MLAs creating an atmosphere of chaos so Opposition MLAs cannot speak during their scheduled speech time.

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“Even derogatory comments were made from the treasury bench to insult my father Sisir Adhikari today during my speech. We have raised the issue that chief minister Mamata Banerjee is not a winning candidate who can be appointed to the post of CM but the Speaker did not allow us to deliberate on this subject, saying it is a sub judicial matter,” he said.

Mr Adhikari said that the Speaker is completely protecting the government. “The Speaker must protect the Opposition MLAs. But he is weak on government. Voice of the Opposition is under attack in the Assembly.” He felt the Speaker is taking a partisan stance since the BJP MLAs were also not allowed to raise the post-poll violence issue in the Assembly.

“More than 45 BJP supporters were killed during the post-poll violence. Around 300 incidents of rape and molestation happened. Thousands of houses were set on fire by TMC miscreants. BJP supporters had to flee to Assam for safe shelter. When we raised the issue, the TMC MLAs terrorized us verbally inside the House like in the same way they unleashed the terror outside Assembly across West Bengal,” he said.

Nearly 30 minutes before the House took a lunch break, the opposition leader, during a discussion on the governor’s inaugural address, raised the matter of Nandigram election to take a dig at Banerjee, drawing flak from the treasury bench. The speaker, on his part, requested Adhikari to refrain from commenting on a sub judice matter. The Leader of the Opposition, however, continued with his tirade against the CM, prompting the speaker to warn him a second time.

Adhikari, along with other BJP MLAs, subsequently walked out of the House. The treasury and the opposition benches also exchanged barbs over issues such as post-poll violence and safety of women in the Assembly, before the BJP staged a walkout. The speaker rued that the saffron party members, in spite of his attempts to accommodate the views of the opposition bench, walked out of the House.