Assam government moves breach of privilege motion against BJP's Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Assam Assembly Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi has asked the House Privileges Committee to examine a breach of privilege motion against BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma moved by the state government for attacking the Chair and the House over suspension of 12 MLAs on Monday.

The Speaker informed the House today after Assam Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rockybul Hussain submitted the complaint against Sarma.

"Yes, I have received the application," Gogoi said to a query from Congress MLA Bhupen Borah in the Assembly.

The Speaker said he has forwarded the application to the Privilege Commitee against Sarma, a former Congress minister who has defected to BJP.

"I have given the application to the Privilege Committee. They will examine it as per procedure and take action accordingly," the Speaker later said.

"They will examine it as per procedure and take action accordingly," Gogoi told PTI.

He said arriving at a decision will not take long as it was a unanimous motion in the House.

"Actually I am the Chairman of the Committee but as I am the involved party, so I have forwarded it to the Deputy Speaker and requested him to look after this application," Gogoi said.

The Assembly had yesterday supported bringing a Breach of Privilege motion against all those who had targeted the Speaker on personal ground for suspending five BJP and seven rebel Congress MLAs from the entire Winter Session on December 7 for disobeying his ruling and alleging that it was influenced by the Chief Minister.

Assam Assembly Principal Secretary Pranab Kumar Das said the Breach of Privilege motion was brought only against BJP Election Committee Convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma for his "disgraceful" comments against the Speaker and the House.

Sarma had attacked the Speaker on the first day of the winter session saying that he had suspended the 12 MLAs under the influence of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

He had also alleged that the Speaker took the decision to please the Congress party in return of an election ticket for his son from his constituency as he had earlier announced that he will not contest in forthcoming Assembly polls.