Don’t act under govt pressure to unseat 9 MLAs: BJP to Speaker

The BJP today asked Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania to desist from acting under pressure of the state government to unseat its nine legislators in an undemocratic and dictatorial manner.

Randhir Sharma, Shri Naina Devi MLA and BJP’s chief spokesperson, while addressing a press conference here, took exception to the statement of the Speaker made here yesterday regarding action against the nine BJP MLAs on a complaint over the contempt of the House. “If the Speaker takes any unconstitutional decision to unseat the nine MLAs, the BJP will fight it tooth and nail. We are not the ones to get intimidated by his threats and will deal with it legally,” he said.

The Speaker had said that a decision would be taken against the nine BJP legislators for contempt of the House during the term of this Vidhan Sabha.

Sharma accused Pathania of acting on the directions of the state government. “The Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha holds a constitutional post, which we all respect. We hope he will uphold the dignity of the chair and act in an impartial manner and not unseat the democratically-elected MLAs under pressure from the government,” he added.

He said, “It appears that the Speaker has suddenly recalled the complaint against the nine MLAs after the removal of the six Chief parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs), who run the risk of being disqualified from the House. Sharma added that the complaint against the nine MLAs pertained to developments in the well of the House during the last Budget session but since the Speaker was not there, no action could

be taken.

Sharma said that the Congress government was scared of facing the Opposition and so the winter session would have only four sittings. “The state government cannot face the Opposition on critical issues like corruption, illegal mining, drug trafficking. Even during this brief four-day session, the Opposition will vociferously raise all these issues,” he added.