Himachal Pradesh Assembly: 5 Congress MLAs suspended for 'jostling' Himachal Governor

Five Congress legislators, including Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, were suspended on Friday for the entire Budget session for creating ruckus and allegedly jostling Governor Bandaru Dattatraya when he was leaving the Himachal Pradesh Assembly complex after his address.

Speaker Vipin Parmar informed the house that five Congress MLAs -- Mukesh Agnihotri, Harsh Varhan Chauhan, Sunder Singh Thakur, Satpal Raizada and Vinay Kumar, were suspended for the entire session till March 20.

The trouble began when Agnihotri stood up as Governor Bandaru Dattatraya was delivering his address on the first day of the session. He said the address had no mention of price rise, unemployment and other important issues.

As opposition legislators tried to disrupt the address, the Governor abruptly



ended his speech and said it may be treated as read. After that the Speaker adjourned the house till Monday.

When the Governor was about to leave the assembly premises, Congress legislators tried to block his passage. BJP ministers and legislators intervened and allegedly pushed the Opposition members aside.

Later, Agnihotri told the media that this was for the first time that the Governor 'ran away' after reading two pages of his 65-page address.

"The address has no mention of corruption relating to Covid, unemployment, price rise and other common man issues," he said.

Agnihotri alleged the Congress legislators were, in fact, manhandled by BJP legislators and ministers when they tried to talk to the Governor. "We did not touch the Governor, the CM (Chief Minister) or ministers."