West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee on Wednesday ordered an investigation after Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and BJP MLA from Nandigram, alleged that a Trinamool Congress MLA tried to assault him inside the Assembly premises.
According to BJP sources, after a question-answer session in the House, there was an altercation between the Leader of Opposition and the MLA of Purbasthali, Tapan Chatterjee at the Assembly lobby.
In his letter, Adhikari wrote: “Today at about 12.20 p.m. while I was interacting with some reporters at the lower lobby, Trinamool Congress MLA of Purbasthali, Tapan Chatterjee approached me in an aggressive manner. Without any instigation or argument, he kept on using abusive language towards me and his body language indicated that his intention was to assault me. I felt insecure inside the Assembly precincts.”
He further wrote: “This is the second time we were threatened by the ruling partymembers. They are taking advantage because of the absence of personal security allotted to us inside Assembly precincts. You prevented them from entering the Assembly premises.”
“As a custodian of the House, you will be responsible if any untoward incident occurs inside the Assembly precincts. I request you to take appropriate action against the MLA,” the BJP leader stated in his letter to the Speaker.
“The lawlessness across West Bengal seems to have trickled inside the WB Legislative Assembly as well. If the Opposition MLAs are not safe inside the Assembly premises, think about the plight of Opposition political workers in the State of West Bengal,” the BJP leader wrote on X.
In his defence, Tapan Chatterjee said: “During the Lok Sabha election campaign, Suvendu Adhikari lied about my daughter’s school job and said that I have two flats in Kolkata. I asked him why he said so and that I don’t know where my Kolkata flat is. So, he should give me the key to the flat. When I said that, he got angry.”
In another post later on social media platform X , Adhikari wrote: “I have submitted a letter to the Hon’ble Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly citing the incident which compromised my security inside the Assembly precincts. This incident certainly calls for a review of the previous order which bars the entry of Central Security Forces inside the Assembly.
“If the Opposition MLAs are not safe inside the Assembly premises, then think about the plight of Opposition political workers in the State of West Bengal,” the Leader of the Opposition said.