Odisha: 3 BJP MLAs Suspended For Hurling Shoes At Speaker's Podium In Assembly

Bhubaneswar: Three senior BJP MLAs - Jayanarayan Mishra, Mohan Majhi and Bishnu Sethy have been suspended from the ongoing Assembly session for allegedly hurling shoes at the Speaker.

After examining the video footage, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro has suspended three legislators. Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi, deputy Leader of Opposition Bishnu Sethi and senior member Jayanarayan Mishra allegedly hurled shoes, ear phones and pens at the Speaker’s podium today during House proceedings.

Meanwhile, BJP members staged a demonstration near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the Assembly premises, protesting the suspension order of the Speaker.
The protesting legislators questioned impartiality of the Speaker.

“I am not favoring shoe hurling incident. We could beg apology for any such incident even as I am unaware that who were involved in the incident. But, the Speaker has curtailed all the constitutional guidelines today. He is acting like a worker of a party. As a Leader of Opposition, I was not allowed to speak. The Bills were passed arbitrarily amid heavy ruckus,” Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik said.

"We will spend whole night at the Gandhi statue and hold a press meet at 10 am tomorrow (Sunday) at BJP State headquarters. On Monday, we will meet the Governor and apprise him about arbitrary passing of bills," Naik added.

Mohan Majhi said “Today is a black day for Odisha as the Speaker has murdered the democracy by gagging the Opposition. I don’t repent or bother for the action taken by the Speaker today.

Similarly, Jaya Narayan Mishra condemned Speaker’s action and welcomed his suspension. “We are opposing injustice in the Assembly. If I am suspended for opposing injustice, I would welcome it. The Speaker did n’t allow any of the Opposition member including Leader of Opposition to speak during passage of the bills, which is unconstitutional."

Congress Legislature party chief Narasingh Mishra said “What happened in the House today is unfortunate and I condemned it. Similarly, I also condemned the way some bills were passed unilaterally in the Assembly.
The unsavory scene was witnessed in the Assembly following a chaotic protest over alleged arbitrary passage of some Bills in the House.