Congress MLA Tara Bahinipati Suspended From Odisha Assembly For 7 Days

Bhubaneswar: Speaker Surama Padhy on Tuesday suspended Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati from the Odisha Legislative Assembly for indiscipline for seven days.

The suspension was initiated based on a proposal by government chief whip Saroj Pradhan.

Earlier in the day, the House witnessed unprecedented scenes. Tensions started when BJD MLAs demanded a statement from Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi over BJP MLA Jaynarayan Mishra’s remark terming the merger of Koshal region with Odisha a historic blunder. Congress MLAs, on the other hand, were agitating over the alleged rise in crimes against women in the state.

The lawmakers were seen pushing each other, standing on the reporters’ table and raising slogans during the protest. Though BJD members were also in the well, they did not participate in the scuffle. Bahinipati even tried to climb onto the Speaker’s podium to disrupt proceedings but was unsuccessful.

Despite the ruckus, the Speaker allowed the Question Hour to continue.

Tension escalated when the senior BJP lawmaker Jayanarayan Mishra rushed towards Bahinipati, who was standing in front of Urban Development Minister K C Mohapatra as he was replying to a question. They were were just short of engaging in fisticuffs.

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The Congress leader alleged that Mishra ‘grabbed him by the collar’ as he was “requesting” the minister to stop speaking amid chaos. BJP MLA Tankadhar Tripathy, however, accused the Opposition of trying to “break the mic” while the minister was speaking.

“We had never seen members of Opposition and Treasury bench clashing in the well of the House. This had never happened in the history of Odisha assembly,” BJD member Arun Kumar Sahoo said.

After the proceedings were adjourned, Congress MLAs staged a sit-in protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Assembly premises.

The BJD MLAs, wearing black badges, also launched a symbolic “search” for the Chief Minister on the Assembly premises with lanterns since Mohan Majhi had skipped House proceedings for the past two days. They also staged a sit-in near the CM’s chamber.