Bhubaneswar: Odisha Legislative Assembly on Thursday witnessed uproar over Congress Spokesperson Ajoy Kumar’s alleged remarks against NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. The pre-lunch session of the House was completely washed away due to strong protest by BJP Members.
As soon the House assembled for the day at 10.30 AM, Opposition BJP Members with holding placards raised anti-Congress slogans and trooped into the Well of the House demanding apology from the Congress and passing of a censure motion against it for the alleged “defamatory” remarks against Ms.Murmu, a tribal woman leader from Odisha.
Speaker Bikram Kesari Arukha asked the BJP Members to express their opinions during the zero hour and allow the question hour to take place but the agitating members refused to comply.
Opposing the BJP Members, Congress MLAs too rushed to the Well and raised slogans against the BJP for stalling the House proceedings for a person who is neither a Member of House nor present there.
It triggered a faceoff between the Opposition BJP and Congress forcing the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings first till 11.30 AM.
When the House reassembled for Zero Hour at 11.30 AM, BJP Chief Whip Mohan Majhi said Congress Spokesperson Ajoy Kumar has made a controversial and cheap mentality statement against Ms.Murmu, who is going to be the ‘First Citizen of India’.
Opposition Chief Whip Mohan Majhi of BJP said outside the House Ajay Kumar’s remarks are unfortunate. This is not his personal opinion, but the views of Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi. We demand an unconditional apology from Congress and passing of a censure motion against the party in Odisha Legislative Assembly.
“We strongly condemn such remarks made by Congress spokesperson and demand to allow us to move a censure motion in the House against the Congress leader,” Mr.Majhi further said.
As the opposition members continued to create uproar in the House, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 4 PM. After the House was adjourned, the BJP MLAs holding banners staged a dharna in the Assembly premises.
Congress Whip Taraprasad Bahinipati blamed the saffron party for creating disturbance in the Assembly for the sake of publicity.
There is no point in disturbing the Assembly proceeding as it is run on the money of the people of Odisha. The BJP Members are doing this only to get publicity, he said.
Mr.Bahinipati said that BJP Members had failed to understand what Mr.Kumar had said and alleged that its Lawmakers were enacting a drama over the issue and were wasting the time of the House proceedings by stalling the Question Hour.
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders and workers took out rallies and started protests in several places including Bhubaneswar and Mayurbhanj—the home district of Ms.Murmu.
As per reports, Mr.Kumar, a former Lok Sabha MP from Jharkhand, on Wednesday said that Ms.Murmu, though a decent person herself, represents the ‘evil philosophy of India’ and she should not be made the symbol of adivasis.
