The protest of the Opposition lawmakers including from the Trinamool Congress against the suspension of 12 MPs in the Rajya Sabha continues unabated.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan also joined the sit-in protest in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises on Tuesday.

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“Today, I met my 12 suspended fellow colleagues from Rajya Sabha who are protesting in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament and expressed my un-stinted support to them. We are standing in solidarity with them for the revocation of their suspension,” tweeted NCP chief later.

While Trinamool Congress has earlier termed the BJP-led government ‘arrogant’ for their conduct in both Houses of Parliament, several Opposition MPs including Rahul Gandhi of Congress have staged protests in Parliament premises demanding revocation of suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was also with them. Recently, Sena’s mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ took a defiant line with regard to Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee’s stand that Congress was not doing enough to fight the BJP.

“There is no UPA”, a remark from Mamata was like a shocker.

“Keeping Congress out of national politics” would not be desirable, the Sena mouthpiece had said.

It would be a “most dangerous threat” to presume that Congress should be “wiped out”, the edit of the widely read Marathi daily has said.

The Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Malikarjun Kharge has particularly raised the issue and urged Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to revoke the suspension.

The plea has been rejected nevertheless with the government side taking a tough stance because one female marshal too was assaulted on the last day of the monsoon session.

The proceedings in both the Houses of Parliament during the ongoing Winter session often get marred by sloganeering and repeated adjournments over the issue, yet the Houses have been transacting some business from time to time.

The members had been suspended under Rule 256 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Rajya Sabha.

During the Monsoon session, Shantanu Sen was suspended for tearing official papers in the House.

He had allegedly disallowed IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to make a statement on Pegasus row.

Six other TMC members were also suspended for displaying placards and disobeying the chair.

During the Winter session on Nov 29, 12 opposition members of the Rajya Sabha including Dola Sen of  Trinamool Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, and Chhaya Verma of Congress were suspended last week for the remaining period of the Session.

They include six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPI(M).

Other members who have been suspended are Phulo Devi Netam, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain, and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress, Binoy Viswam of CPI, Elamaram Kareem of CPI(M),  Shanta Chhetri of  TMC and  Anil Desai of  Shiv Sena.