Congress suspends 2 MLAs for cross voting in West Bengal Rajya Sabha polls

KOLKATA: Congress today suspended two of its legislators for voting for Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha biennial election for five seats in West Bengal.

The two suspended MLAs are Sushil Roy and Emani Biswas. "We had been receiving complaints about these MLAs for a long time and an enquiry was going on. Both these MLAs were suspended today for anti-party activities," West Bengal PCC chief Pradip Bhattacherjee told PTI here.

Biswas was MLA from Suti in Murshidabad district, while Roy represented Gajol seat in Malda district.

Bhattacherjee earlier told a local TV channel, "Chitfund money was used for purchasing the MLAs. There was no instance in West Bengal earlier of votes being purchased."

Three Left MLAs Sunil Mondal of Forward Bloc, Ananta Deb Adhikary and Dasarath Tirkey both from RSP, and Congress MLAs Roy and Biswas also voted in favour of TMC nominee Ahmed Hasan.

In the poll for five seats, Trinamool has fielded candidates in four seats, the Left Front in one and Congress along with the Left have nominated an Independent A S Malihabadi.

Commenting on the developments, TMC General Secretary Mukul Roy said, "There are known Left leaders who have now voted for us for ideological reasons. We thank them."

Expressing dismay over cross-voting, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said, "This is deplorable. I don't respect people who violate party lines and vote."