Himachal Governor allegedly manhandled while leaving Assembly, 5 Congress MLAs suspended

New Delhi: A high-voltage drama unfolded in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly complex as few Congress legislators allegedly manhandled Himachal Pradesh Governor Bandaru Dattatraya.

The incident happened while Mr Dattatraya was leaving the Assembly after his address on the opening day of the Budget Session. 5 Congress MLAs have been suspended for the remainder of the Budget Session.

Speaker Vipin Parmar said the Congress MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, were suspended on a motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj.

The Opposition members reportedly tried to stop Governor in front of Speaker’s chamber when he was going towards his cavalcade, accompanied by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Parmar, after addressing the Assembly on the opening day of the Budget Session.

The speaker said the Congress members’ action was against rules.

Earlier in the day, while Governor was still reading his address, CLP Leader Mukesh Agnihotri stood up and said the address had no mention of price rise, unemployment and other important issues.

Congress legislators reportedly tried to disrupt the Governor’s address following which Bandaru Dattatraya abruptly ended his speech and said it may be considered as read.

5 Cong MLAs including Leader of Opposition in House suspended

While moving the motion in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bhardwaj said Chief Minister Thakur had termed the manhandling an ‘attack on the governor’.

Besides Leader of the Opposition Agnihotri, the four other suspended MLAs are Harsh Vardhan Chauhan, Sunder Singh Thakur, Satpal Raizada and Vinay Kumar.

Congress legislators alleged that contents of the address were ‘a bundle of lies’. They stated that the issue of increase in cooking gas, petrol and diesel prices was not included in the address.