BJP defends Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision to suspend Congress MPs

NEW DELHI: BJP today defended the Speaker's decision to suspend 25 Congress members for "willfully obstructing" the House, saying she was "constrained" to do so as they did not heed her repeated warnings and it was no longer possible to run the House.

BJP's defence came after Congress president Sonia Gandhi described Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision as a "black day for democracy" and several opposition parties, including TMC, AAP, JD(U), deciding to boycott the House for five days, expressing their solidarity with the suspended members.

The ruling party said it was the Speaker's prerogative to take appropriate decisions to run the House smoothly in accordance with people's wishes.

"It is the prerogative of the presiding officer to take all appropriate action to ensure that the House functions smoothly in accordance with wishes of people as it is the House of the people.

"Opposition members who have not heeded repeated warnings from the Chair had to be suspended because it was not possible to run the House smoothly in accordance with rules," BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said.

BJP leader and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the Speaker was constrained because these members refused to heed her requests.

The suspended members include B N Chandrappa, Santok Singh Chaudhary, A H K Choudhury, Sushmita Dev, Ninog Ering, R Dhruvanarayana, Gaurav Gogoi, G Sukender Reddy, Deepender Hooda, S Kodikunnil, S P Muddahanumegowda, Abhijit Mukherjee, Mullappally Ramachandran, K H Munniyappa, B V Nayak, Vincent Pala, M K Raghavan, Ranjeet Ranjan, C L Ruala, T Sahu, Rajee Satav, Ravneet Singh, K Suresh, K C Venugopal and T Meinya.