Opposition blames Congress for repeated adjournments in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Opposition BJP and AIADMK today strongly protested treasury bench's suggestion of suspending two sloganeering TDP members saying Congress should be blamed for the repeated disruptions in the Upper House.

V Maitreyan (AIADMK) took strong objection when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath suggested that P J Kurien, who was in the Chair, should invoke Rule 255 of Rajya Sabha to suspend the members for the "unruly behaviour" inside the House.

According to Rule 255, "The Chairman may direct any member, whose conduct is in his opinion grossly disorderly, to withdraw immediately from the Council..."

Maitreyan said the Rule should have been applied on the Congress members first as some of those from the treasury bench had behaved in the same way earlier on Telengana issue.

He alleged that the current situation was a fall out of mismanagement on the part of Congress and dared the UPA-II to invoke Rule 255 on agitating members in Lok Sabha.

Two TDP members - YSR Chowdhary and C M Ramesh -- have been protesting the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh leading to repeated adjournments of the House since the Monsoon Session of Parliament stated yesterday.

Derek O'Brien (TMC) also criticised the treasury bench's suggestion and said the Rule should not be invoked as they have just two members.

Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) also blamed Congress for the way they have acted on Telangana issue.

Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley also slammed Congress for suggesting use of Rule 255 against them.

"You want a consensus and instead of building a consensus, you are trying to perpetuate things which will only hurt the cause itself," Jaitley said.