BJP MLAs wave black flags in Bengal assembly demand 'biased' Speaker's resignation

    Kolkata, Mar 20 (PTI) Accusing West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee of not being impartial, opposition BJP legislators on Thursday waved black flags and staged a walkout from the House demanding his resignation.

    Banerjee said he does not want to run the assembly by keeping the saffron party members out, but they are trying to "defy the rules".
    Immediately after the commencement of the day's proceedings, the BJP legislators started waving black flags and sloganeering against the Speaker, alleging that he was not impartial, and democracy was being trampled in the House.

    Amid the din, the discussion on the Appropriation Bill was taken up.

    Some BJP MLAs trooped into the Well of the House and tore documents of the assembly while protesting.

    After demonstrating for more than 35 minutes, the BJP legislators staged a walkout from the assembly.

    The saffron party legislators also burnt an effigy of the Speaker outside the assembly premises.

    Alleging that Banerjee was not allowing the BJP MLAs to speak in the House, they said their protest was also against black flags allegedly shown to the opposition legislators, who were led by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, during their visit to Baruipur, the constituency of the Speaker, on Wednesday.
    Reacting to the BJP's protests in the House, Speaker Banerjee said this was not the way to seek his resignation.
    "The Constitution provides how the Speaker will leave his chair, but running down towards the Speaker and shouting (seeking his resignation) - this has never happened," Banerjee told reporters in his chamber.
    Claiming that the opposition BJP was trying to create a restive situation, the Speaker said that he had heard that they had tried to fuel disorder in Baruipur on Wednesday.
    Banerjee is an MLA from Baruipur Paschim assembly segment in South 24 Parganas, where the BJP legislators had gone to hold a rally protesting what they alleged to be the Speaker's partisan attitude towards the treasury bench in the Assembly.
    Responding to the opposition legislators burning his effigy outside the Assembly premises, Banerjee jokingly said, "I don't know whether they were wishing for my long life or something else by doing this."
    Asked by reporters about the walkout by the saffron party members after they were denied permission to raise the issue of black flags shown at the BJP MLAs in Baruipur on Wednesday, the Speaker said that he wants them to participate in discussions in the Assembly.
    "Our rules are clear about what can be done and what cannot be. What can I do if they try to defy the rules? I don't want to run the House by keeping them out of the House like in the Lok Sabha," Banerjee said, in an oblique reference to the suspension of nearly 100 opposition MPs from the Lok Sabha over continued protests during the winter session in 2023.
    "Their absence in the House clearly indicates that they (BJP MLAs) are invisible," the Speaker said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)