Punjab Budget Session: Congress MLAs Suspended, Party Chief Amarinder Singh Raja Marshalled Out Amid Din

Chandigarh: While at least nine Punjab Congress MLAs were suspended for the day, the state party chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring was marshalled out of the House after the Speaker named all the present Congress legislators for disrupting the assembly proceedings here on Wednesday.

It so happened during the discussion on the budget when the Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan refused to extend time for Warring to speak on budget after the time allotted to him. The leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa also sought from the Speaker more time for Warring but his request was also turned down.

Sandhwan told Warring that while the latter's time was over, his party had been allotted 28 minutes for the discussion on the budget. Congress, the main opposition party in the 117-member House, has 17 MLAs.

Irked over it, the Congress members raised an uproar seeking more time to speak. They went to the well of the House shouting slogans against the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). As heated arguments continued between the treasury and opposition benches, the Speaker named and suspended all the Congress MLAs present at that time for disrupting the proceedings of the House for the day and repeatedly asked them to leave the House. Subsequently, he adjourned the House for 15 minutes. The suspended MLAs included Bajwa, Warring, Barindermeet Pahda, Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Rana Gurjit Singh, Vikramjit Chaudhary and Sandeep Jakhar.

However, when the House proceedings resumed, it was noticed that Warring had still squatted in the well of the House insisting for more time to speak on budget. It was at this time when the Speaker asked the House marshall to physically lift him out of the House. He said that he had given an additional five minutes time to the Congress members over their allotted time, but rules had to be followed.

Notably, even though the AAP and the Congress are the constituents of the INDIA bloc, they are fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls independently in Punjab.