High drama in West Bengal Assembly, Guv tables address

Kolkata: High drama was witnessed on the first day of West Bengal assembly's budget session on Monday as Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was forced to cut short his inaugural speech and table the address as BJP MLAs staged a noisy protest in the House over alleged violence in recently concluded civic elections in the state and TMC lady MLAs pleaded with him to deliver his speech.

The protest prompted West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to term it "unprecedented" while the governor said that such incidents should not be repeated.

The TMC supremo, who shares a strained relationship with Dhankhar, also wondered aloud whether the governor was under any pressure not to read out his address, which as is the norm, was prepared by the state government.

Dhankhar, who arrived at the assembly at 2 PM to deliver the inaugural address, could not do so as BJP legislators carrying posters and photographs of alleged victims of civic poll violence went to the well of the House and staged a protest.

The governor was seen pleading with the BJP MLAs to let the proceedings begin but the saffron party MLAs remained adamant and raised slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.

As he was about to leave the House without delivering his inaugural speech, ruling party MLAs, including Banerjee herself requested him to stay. Dhankhar again urged the BJP lawmakers to calm down, but in vain.

This led to the TMC members raising anti-BJP slogans from about 2.25 p m.

They were seen standing in a circle around him with folded hands, blocking his way as a visibly irritated Dhankhar tried thrice to leave the house.

The high drama and disruption of proceedings continued for an hour till 3 PM.

With the treasury bench making repeated requests, Dhankhar then read out the first and last lines of the address, tabled it and left.

Later, the chief minister said that the BJP's protest was aimed to create a "constitutional crisis" but this was averted as the Governor accepted her request to table his speech.

"What BJP did today



in the assembly is a shame for democracy. It is unprecedented. The saffron party wanted to create a constitutional crisis," she told reporters.

Although she thanked the governor, Banerjee wondered whether Dhankhar was under any form of pressure not to read out his inaugural address.

"I requested the governor with folded hands. Maybe he was under pressure not to read out the speech. We requested him to read out at least one line from his speech and table it in the House. He kept our request. We are thankful to him," she said.

Reacting to the ruckus in the House, Dhankhar said such incidents should not be repeated.

"It was against the tenets of democracy. What happened today was not right. When I wanted to leave, I couldn't leave the House. It was the duty of the chief marshal to restore order in the house, but he didn't," the governor said.

He tweeted "Purturbed at unwholesome turn of events in the assembly during Guv Address. More sad than hurt at the unexpected blockade attempt by lady Ministers & MLAs. Our culture tainted. Unprecedented - Marshal defied directive of the Chair. Temple of Democracy stood ravaged'.

Later while addressing the House during the motion of thanks, Speaker Biman Banerjee said the governor's address was delayed by an hour due to some untoward incidents.

Led by the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of BJP, the party MLAs took out a protest march from the state assembly to the Raj Bhawan.

Adhikari said that opposition members wanted to register their protest against alleged incidents of violence and rigging during the civic polls.

"We conducted peaceful protests in the House. We have every right to protest against poll violence. It was the TMC's women MLAs who heckled the governor and stopped him from leaving," he said.

In July last year, Dhankhar was forced to cut short his inaugural address to the then newly constituted assembly amid protests by opposition BJP against alleged post-poll violence in the state.