The BJP-led Opposition walked out from the West Bengal Assembly after Speaker Biman Banerjee asked a marshal to escort BJP MLAs Manoj Oraon and Shankar Ghosh out of the session and suspended another party MLA, Dipak Barman, for a month.

After a vacation, the second half of the Budget session of the legislative assembly began on Monday. During the budget debate, BJP MLA Hiran Chatterjee was delivering his speech, where he claimed that the West Bengal Right to Service Act Commission is defunct, that nobody is working there and that the office has remained under lock and key for a long period. After he mentioned this, the Speaker asked him to stop, but Chatterjee continued. Then, the Speaker asked for Chatterjee’s microphone to be muted. He then announced the name of a TMC MLA who was to deliver a speech.

After this, BJP MLAs Manoj Oraon and Shankar Ghosh came out in front of the Speaker and started raising slogans against him. Then, the speaker ordered a marshal to escort them out of the Assembly. Another BJP MLA, Dipak Barman, threw a paper, and the Speaker suo moto suspended him for a month. Following this, the party’s MLAs walked out from the Assembly and in front of the main gate, they started to protest against the Speaker.

“We are here to uphold people’s demands and identify the government’s corruption. But the government doesn’t want that. Naturally, they suspended us. Earlier, (Leader of Opposition) Suvendu Adhikari and some other MLAs were also suspended. Is this democracy?” said Ghosh.

Adhikari said, “The gundagiri TMC used to do outside, they did that inside the Assembly on Monday. This is not acceptable… It is unprecedented. The Speaker also humiliated Rajbangshi MLA Dipak Barman. People of North Bengal will give befitting reply for this to the TMC.”

The BJP, however, has a plan to have a meeting on Monday to strategise how they will participate in the Assembly.