Six BJP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, were suspended from the West Bengal Assembly on Monday over their protests against the Sandeshkhali incident in which villagers hit the streets in North 24 Parganas district seeking the arrest of TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his two aides over allegations of land grabbing.

Besides Adhikari, the suspended MLAs are Mihir Goswami, Shankar Ghosh, Tapasi Mondol, Agnimitra Paul and Bankim Ghosh. The legislators, however, said they were proud of the suspension. “We are proud and we are happy,” Suvendu Adhikari declared.

On Monday morning, all BJP MLAs entered the Assembly wearing T-shirts that said ‘We are with Sandeshkhali’ and demanded a statement from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the incident.

On seeing the T-shirts, Speaker Biman Banerjee requested Adhikari to direct the Opposition MLAs to take it off, but they refused. Adhikari asked why they should take off the T-shirts since there were no offensive words written on them.

He then sat on the floor of the Well and started raising slogans. The Speaker then announced the suspension of the six MLAs.