Ruckus in West Bengal assembly over governor's speech

The ruckus continued for about an hour and the governor was unable to begin reading his speech. Later, he just read out the first and the last lines of the speech before leaving the assembly premises.

Kolkata: Pandemonium prevailed in the West Bengal assembly on Monday afternoon over the speech by the West Bengal governor, Jagdeep Dhankar on the opening day of the budget session of the assembly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators started protesting against the "massive election malpractices" at the recently concluded polls for 108 municipalities in the state as soon as the governor rose to read out his speech on the opening day of the budget session.

The governor could not read his budget speech despite repeated requests by the assembly speaker Biman Banerjee and the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee to the BJP legislators to calm down. The ruckus continued for about an hour and the governor was unable to begin reading his speech. Later, he just read out the first and the last lines of the speech before leaving the assembly premises.

While the agitation of the BJP legislators was going on, the governor talked to the leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari. The ruckus, however, continued. The governor initially disagreed to read out just the first and last lines of his speech as requested by the chief minister and the speaker and said that he would not start reading the speech unless the house was in order.

The Trinamool Congress legislators protested and said that he will not be able to leave the assembly without reading out the speech. Finally, the governor agreed and left the assembly after reading out the first and the last lines of his speech. Later chief minister Mamata Banerjee told media persons that BJP was resorting to cheap drama after getting defeated in the elections. “What happened today was unconditional. What BJP legislators have done is undemocratic. There might be some pressure on the governor that he wanted to leave without reading out the speech but we requested him otherwise there would have been a constitutional crisis,” the chief minister said.

Later the leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the governor was physically heckled by the legislators of Trinamool Congress. BJP legislators also later participated in a protest march from the assembly house to the Governor's House against the alleged manhandling of the governor. The CPI(M) central committee member, Dr Sujan Chakraborty described the development as a stage-managed mock-fight between BJP and Trinamool Congress.