Six Congress MPs suspended from five Lok Sabha sittings

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspended six Congress members from five sittings because of their unruly conduct.

The six are Gaurav Gogoi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ranjit Ranjan, Sushmita Dev, M.K. Raghav and K. Suresh.

Mahajan announced her order as soon as the House met at 2.00 PM following an adjourment.

In her order, she said all these members had torn official papers and thrown it towards the Chair, prompting members of the treasury benches to shout "shame, shame".

Some of these members had picked up papers from the Lok Sabha secretariat staffers' table and had torn and thrown them, Mahajan said.

She said all this had happened despite she agreeing to a discussion on the issue of alleged atrocities against Dalits and Muslims.

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and a few other members had raised the issue of atrocities and she had allowed them to speak, Mahajan said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar had also agreed to a discussion on the issue, but despite that many members stormed the Well, she said while pronouncing the order.

They did not stop despite her repeated requests to them to return to their seats and instead, indulged in the improper conduct, she said, while adjourning the House till 2.30 PM.

As she pronounced their suspension, many Congress members again trooped into the Well, with K C Venugopal being heard telling her that she should suspend all Congress members.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi was also present in the House.

When the House reassembled at 2.30 PM, Congress members were joined by the Left in protesting against the suspension, prompting Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai to adjourn the House for the day