BHUBANESWAR: Day after Speaker Surama Padhy suspended 12 Congress MLAs from the Assembly, the party legislators and workers clashed with police on Wednesday as they were denied entry to the premises.
The scuffle took place at the entrance gate when the Congress MLAs and their followers tried to barge into the Assembly. However, the security personnel managed to stop them and all the 12 suspended MLAs along with Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka were taken into custody.
A peculiar situation also developed near the gate when the BJD MLAs joined them. The legislators of the regional outfit wanted to go out of the premises to pay tributes at the statue of BR Ambedkar in AG square during the same time as their Congress counterparts were trying to force their entry. The BJD MLAs entered into a scuffle with the policemen too but finally managed to go out after intervention of senior leaders like Ranendra Pratap Swain and Arun Kumar Sahoo.
Earlier on Tuesday night, the Congress MLAs, who had been squatting in the well of the House even after their suspension, were forcibly evicted. At around 2.15 am in the night, more than 150 security personnel entered the well and removed the MLAs, and dropped them near Congress Bhawan. The MLAs also had a scuffle with the security personnel in the well while they were being removed. The legislators then sat on a dharna on the road in front of the Assembly and many of them also slept there.
Leader of the Congress legislature party (CLP) Ram Chandra Kadam alleged, “The security personnel behaved with us as if we were terrorists or Naxalites. They misbehaved with me and my colleagues while removing us.”
Kadam said that after eviction from the House, they sat on a dharna and some of them slept on the road till morning. They regrouped and started their march towards the Assembly at 10 am. “We wanted to stage a dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in protest, but were denied entry and taken into custody,” Kadam said.
Senior MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati alleged that he was manhandled by police while they were removed from the well. He said somebody snatched away his gold chain from around his neck during the scuffle.
Congress MP from Koraput Saptagiri Ulaka was arrested from in front of the Assembly when he wanted to enter the premises. Continued on P5
Condemning the authoritarian measures against the Congress MLAs, Ulaka said he will bring a breach of privilege notice in Lok Sabha in this regard.
Meanwhile, amid the chaos at the Assembly gate, two Congress MLAs Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Ramesh Chandra Jena, who had not been suspended, were allowed to go inside. But they did not last long as Speaker Surama Padhy suspended them for seven days for unruly behaviour.
Bahinipati and Jena beat gongs and shouted slogans protesting the suspension of colleagues in the well of the House during the question hour even as the Speaker continued with the proceedings. She announced their suspension after a motion brought by government chief whip Saroj Pradhan was passed in the House.
