Rahul Gandhi disqualification repercussion in Odisha Assembly, Cong stalls proceedings

Bhubaneswar, March 28: The Odisha Legislative Assembly on Monday saw the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by the Lok Sabha secretariat had repercussions on its functioning.

The House plunged into turmoil during the Question Hour as the opposition Congress members wearing black clothes rushed to the Speaker’s podium and created a ruckus over the disqualification of their leader. They shouted slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

As the Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukh found it difficult to run the House, he adjourned the House till 4 pm. Ever after the House reassembled; it could not run smoothly and saw five adjournments. The entire forenoon and post-noon session was washed away.

Till this report was filed, the House was adjourned and the Speaker was holding discussions with leaders of the Treasury and Opposition benches to find a solution to end the logjam. 

Earlier in the day, as soon as the Question Hour began, the Congress members rushed to the well, and shouted slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing it of ‘butchering the democracy’ and stalled the proceedings of the House.

Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra said Rahul Gandhi was subjected to a nasty political conspiracy by the BJP which apprehended from him threat to their continuance in power.

“Rahul Gandhi has been found guilty for an incident in Karnataka. The unfortunate part of the story is that none of the persons whose name was taken by Rahul has filed the case. It is another person who filed a criminal defamation case. This is an attempt to muzzle democracy,” said the CLP leader.

Senior Congress leader Suresh Routray accused the Narendra Modi government of being “dictatorial.”

“He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) has been torturing members of Nehru family. Our leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification is illegal. The speaker disqualified him in just 11 minutes. It will make a huge difference in the 2024 elections. Rahul Gandhi will become the Prime Minister of India,” said Routray.

Censuring the Modi government, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Pattanayak said, “During the time of Narendra Modi, the democracy is on the brink of collapse. To save democracy, all the MLAs have joined hands. We are standing in solidarity with Rahul Gandhi. Later in the day, a delegation of Congress leaders submitted a memorandum to the Governor Ganeshi Lal.”

When asked why the BJD was keeping mum on the issue, Patnaik said, “Apart from the hunger for power, there are many scams like the chit fund case and mines scam. Perhaps fearing action from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing into multi-crore chit fund scam, they are maintaining such silence.”

Meanwhile, protesting against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, the state unit of the Congress took out a massive rally from the circuit house to the Raj Bhawan where they will stage a demonstration and later submit their memorandum to the Governor.