Privilege motion moved against Suvendu for 'threatening' minister in Assembly

PTI, Kolkata, Mar 11, 2023 : West Bengal minister and senior TMC leader Partha Bhowmik on Saturday moved a privilege motion against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of opposition in the assembly, for “threatening” him in the House that the state minister will be put behind bars within a month.

Speaker Biman Banerjee said the motion had been admitted and will be sent to the privilege committee to look into the matter.

The report will be tabled in the House in the next session, he said.

Notably, several leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate in the recent past in connection with the alleged school jobs scam and cattle smuggling cases.

Adhikari and Bhowmik got embroiled in a verbal exchange over switching sides of a few members to the ruling Trinamool Congress after winning on BJP tickets in the 2021 assembly elections.

Six BJP MLAs have joined the TMC since 2021 without resigning from the House.

The LoP’s sharp retort about putting Bhowmik behind bars came on Friday after the minister asked Adhikari which party his father Sisir Adhikari, who had won the Lok Sabha election from Kanthi on the TMC ticket, is at present.

The TMC has been seeking cancellation of his Lok Sabha membership under the Anti-Defection Act, claiming that he has joined the BJP.

“The kind of remarks from an MLA and that too by the LoP is unacceptable. But this is not the first time he has made such remarks. He had earlier threatened a few MLAs that they would be put behind bars,” Bhowmik said.

Reacting to the privilege motion, BJP chief whip Manoj Tigga claimed that such notices are not accepted when the saffron party MLAs are abused.

“When BJP MLAs are verbally abused in the House, the LoP is not allowed to speak. The Speaker never accepts our privilege motions. The LoP has done nothing wrong. Let them prove it first,” he said.

The Speaker had cautioned that such comments should not be made inside the House.

Seeking the intervention of the Speaker, Bhowmik had said that he was apprehensive about his security because of the comments of the BJP leader.

Terming the comment as “unfortunate”, Banerjee said that the House would look into the minister’s apprehension over his safety.

The Speaker had told Bhowmik that he might consider giving notice for initiating a privilege motion against the BJP leader.