Kolkata: BJP legislators staged a demonstration and walked out of Bengal assembly on Monday afternoon to protest the mention of Suman Kanjilal’s name on the list of its speakers. Kanjilal, the BJP MLA from Alipurduar, had switched over to Trinamool in 2023.
BJP members, led by chief whip Shankar Ghosh, protested that Kanjilal was no longer with BJP. He was with TMC, they claimed.With speaker Biman Banerjee not relenting to BJP MLAs’ demand to not describe Suman Kanjilal as a BJP MLA, the MLAs walked out.
Condemning the walkout, Kanjilal said: “Is this place for voicing the unheard population of your constituency or to indulge in narrow politics?”
Kanjilal also slammed Centre for not passing on any meteorological information on flash floods in north Bengal so that preventive steps could be taken to save lives and property. He said four rain-gauging stations in north Bengal were inadequate to generate any timely alert. Kanjilal also spoke in favour of the India-Bhutan River Commission, on which the speaker decided to send a team to Centre. CM Mamata Banerjee said the team should have Kanjilal as a member since he was well-versed about the rivers of north Bengal. tnn