West Bengal Assembly speaker revokes suspension of seven BJP MLAs

West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Thursday revoked the suspension of seven BJP MLAs, including that of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, taking into consideration separate motions moved by two saffron camp legislators in the House.

As the second half of the Assembly session began, the speaker asked BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul to read out the last two lines of the motion requesting withdrawal of the suspension order against Adhikari and four other MLAs -- Manoj Tigga, Narhari Mahato, Mihir Goswami and Shankar Ghosh.

Banerjee then consulted parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee, who also spoke in favour of the suspension withdrawal.

Sikha Chatterjee, another BJP legislator, then read out the second motion in the House, seeking a similar suspension revocation against MLAs Mihir Goswami and Sudip Mukhopadhyay.

The speaker subsequently agreed to withdraw the suspension order against all seven MLAs.

Clashes had broken out in the Assembly on March 28 between the legislators of the ruling TMC and BJP, following which the speaker suspended Adhikari and the four other MLAs.

Earlier in March, Goswami and Ghosh were suspended over their conduct during governor’s address in the House.