lucknow

Updated: Dec 18, 2019 01:44 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers on Tuesday disrupted proceedings of the UP assembly when party MLA from Loni (Ghaziabad) assembly constituency Nand Kishore Gujjar was not permitted to raise his point on the floor of the house.

Around a 100 BJP MLAs rallied in support of Gujjar. They raised a slogan -- ‘vidhayak ekta zinadabad’ -- calling upon lawmakers to unite on the issue. A large number of them kept standing near their seats. Repeated attempts by speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit and parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna to convince them failed.

Cutting across party lines, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress lawmakers supported Gujjar. They urged the speaker to permit him to put his point on the floor of the House.

Gujjar reportedly wanted to inform the House about his detention in a police station in Ghaziabad some time back.

After daylong drama, the speaker assured the protesting lawmakers that he would redress the grievances of Gujjar and talk to chief minister Yogi Adityanath about the issue.

Principal secretary, Vidhan Sabha, Pradeep Dubey said after an assurance by the speaker, the MLAs withdrew their protest and normalcy was restored. Gujjar said the speaker assured him that the district magistrate (DM) and superintendent of police (SP) of Ghaziabad would be summoned by the house.

It all started when during ‘zero hour’ when Gujjar stood to make his point. Leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP) legislature party Ram Govind Chaudhary then said, “It’s a tradition of the House that a lawmaker draws its attention towards his grievances or humiliation by a public servant. The BJP MLA must get an opportunity to put his account on the floor of the House.”

Leader of the BSP legislature party Lalji Verma also said that the MLA should be allowed to speak. “An MLA cannot be stopped from speaking in the legislative assembly,” Verma said.

Stating that the government had humiliated the BJP MLA and was trying to gag his voice, the SP MLAs staged a walkout.

Meanwhile, parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna called Gujjar in the lobby of the treasury bench to discuss the issue even as the BJP MLAs urged the speaker to permit Gujjar to put forward his point. The speaker told the members that he had not received notice from the MLA and directed Gujjar to take his seat. When Gujjar remained adamant, the speaker directed Khanna to take cognizance of the issue. Khanna then directed the MLA to take his seat.

Terming the direction of Khanna undemocratic, Chaudhary, Verma and Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra urged the speaker to permit the BJP MLA to speak.

Then the SP MLAs rushed to the well of the House, forcing the speaker to adjourn the House for an hour.

Khanna and several senior ministers then went up to Gujjar to discuss the issue. A large number of BJP MLAs assembled around the ministers. They said Gujjar should be permitted to speak and that action should be taken against the erring officers.

When the House reassembled, the BJP MLAs again stood up to protest. The leaders of the opposition parties said an MLA had been humiliated by administrative officers and should be permitted speak. But the speaker adjourned the House for the day.

However, the protesting BJP MLAs as well as SP, BSP and Congress MLAs remained seated and shouted slogans calling for MLAs’ unity. Later the protesting BJP MLAs shifted to the lobby of the treasury bench where deputy CM Dinesh Sharma and Khanna held talks with them.

Later the speaker also called the protesting BJP lawmakers for talks.