West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Thursday revoked the suspension of seven Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) MLAs, including that of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. The MLAs were suspended in two separate incidents in March.
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Two BJP MLAs Agnimitra Paul and Sikha Chatterjee moved separate motions for the withdrawal of suspension against the seven MLAs. Ms. Paul moved a motion for withdrawal of the suspension against Mr. Adhikari and four other MLAs -- Manoj Tigga, Narhari Mahato, Mihir Goswami and Shankar Ghosh, who were suspended on March 28, when the legislators of the Opposition benches and Treasury benches came to blows. Ms. Chatterjee meanwhile moved another motion for withdrawal of suspension against MLAs Mihir Goswami and Sudip Mukhopadhyay, who were suspended on March 7 during Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s address to the House.
The Speaker decided to withdraw the suspensions after consultation with the State’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee.
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BJP MLAs had earlier this week moved a motion for withdrawal of the suspensions and had also approached Calcutta High Court. The Court had suggested that the matter should be resolved within the Assembly.
Over the past few days since the start of Assembly Session, BJP MLAs have been protesting in the premises of the House demanding withdrawal of the suspensions. BJP Chief Whip Manoj Tigga said that he believes that the suspensions have been withdrawn due to intervention by the Court.
During the ongoing session of the West Bengal Assembly, a number of Bills including The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, that replaces the State’s Governor with the Chief Minister as the Chancellor of all State universities, were passed.