Lone BJP MLA walks out of House to protest ‘lack of democracy’

'My walkout was a mark of protest that there was no democracy, be it inside the Assembly or outside it.'

Lone BJP MLA Samik Bhattacharya staged a walkout from the Assembly on Thursday alleging that there was no democracy in the Assembly or the state at large.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had always claimed that there was no law and order problem in the state. After police atrocities at Nanur, Sattor and Belpata and the six BJP workers who had been hacked to death yesterday, I demanded a statement of the CM who had been saying that it was the handiwork of a section of media which was blowing things out of proportion to malign the reputation of the government,” Bhattacharya said.

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When Bhattacharya tried to raise the point of information, he was not given permission by the Speaker to speak, after which he staged a walkout from the Assembly. “My walkout was a mark of protest that there was no democracy, be it inside the Assembly or outside it,” he said.

Mollah on Left benches

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Expelled CPM leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah, who had been sitting with the Congress legislators since being expelled from the party in February last year, reoccupied his seat on the Left Front benches.

Leader of the Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra was seen engaged in an animated conversation with Mollah giving rise to speculations about Mollah getting close to the Left leadership.

Mollah, a key Muslim face of the CPM, had been the only party MLA who had been unbeaten for over four decades since 1972. He had been expelled from the party for making ‘anti-party remarks’ when he publicly blamed former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s industrial policy for the electoral debacle in 2011.

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In Odisha, Modi mounts ‘loot tantra-vs-bachat utsav’ attack on Congress over GST

India8 hr ago

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday hailed the revised Goods and Services Tax (GST) structures, saying the era of “double bachat (saving) and double kamai (income)” has arrived under the Bharatiya Janata Party rule. Addressing the ' Namo Yuva Samabesh' in Jharsuguda, Modi accused the Congress of indulging in “loot tantra (tactics)” while in power.

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