Vijender Gupta, Sirsa marshalled out of Delhi Assembly

New Delhi: The Delhi Assembly’s special session witnessed high drama on Thursday as BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta and party MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa were marshalled out while their colleague staged a walkout demanding deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s apology for “misleading” the House over the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The two MLAs, along with another Opposition MLA Jagdish Pradhan, trooped into the Well of the House demanding Mr Sisodia’s apology for “misleading” the Assembly by levelling allegations against the Centre during a discussion on the demand for full statehood to Delhi.

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel asked the Opposition MLAs to maintain silence but Mr Gupta and Mr Sirsa continued to voice their demand. Following this, the Speaker asked the House marshals to take the two out of the House.

Later, Mr Goel told the House he will seek Mr Sisodia’s views on the matter.

“If they (BJP MLAs) had an issue, they could have raised it under Rule 66 (A),” he said.

While tabling a resolution that seeks to grant full statehood to Delhi in the House, Mr Sisodia on Wednesday said that the Jan Lokpal could have set up within six months of the bill being passed and it would have been catching corrupt officers by now, but the bill passed by the Delhi Assembly was “lying with the Centre”.

The Opposition leaders said that the Jan Lokpal Bill was not lying with the Centre, but with the administrative department of the Delhi government since September 2017.

Later, law minister Kailash Gahlot told reporters that the bill was not pending with him.

As the House sat again after a 30-minute break, Gupta and two BJP MLAs Sirsa and Jagdish Pradhan trooped into the Well of House, demanding

Sisodia’s apology over the issue. Later, all the three BJP MLAs trooped into the well, prompting the speaker to adjourn the House proceedings for 15 minutes.

When the House proceedings resumed, the trio again trooped into the well to press for their demand.

As Gupta was adamant to his demand, the speaker directed the marshals to take him out of the House. Later, Sirsa was also marshalled out, while Pradhan staged a walkout to show protest.