A section of Congress legislators inside the Assam legislative Assembly debated over seat or the seating arrangements made for them during the session of the House on Wednesday.
The House witnessed a noisy scene as the seat of senior Congress legislator Anjan Dutta was allotted to former Minister and another senior party legislator Ardhendu Kumar Dey. Dutta objected to this by demanding a justification from Speaker Pranab Gogoi and boycotted the House. Soon after, another Congress legislator Bhupen Bora boycotted the Question Hour over the same issue.
Dutta’s seat was in the front row but on Wednesday it was allotted to Ardhendu Kumar Dey, who usually sits in the second row. Dey was recently dropped from the Ministerial berth due to dissident activities.
“It is an insult to me. I have been in the Assembly since 1991 and I am a senior legislator. I do not mind sitting in the back but it is not acceptable to me that you made the change merely based on the complaint of someone. There are many legislators who are junior to me and yet they are sitting in the rows ahead of me. I want justice from you and I believe this is not impartial,” said Dutta
“I am also a senior member of the House and I have been in the Assembly since 1985. I have been in cabinet three times since then. On Monday, I appealed to the Speaker to change my seat considering my seniority. last night I received a letter from the Speaker where in I was allotted seat no 24 in the House. I did not even know that Anjan Dutta was sitting here,” said Ardhendu Dey.
Dey blamed it to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka and said that the Parliamentary Affairs department should have been more careful in allotting the seats in the House. Speaker Pranab Gogoi, however, said that he had changed the seat as per the rules of the House and invited Dutta for a discussion in his chamber after the session.As Dutta was arguing with the Speaker, Congress legislators Jayanta Malla Baruah and Piyush Hazarika alleged Dutta of threatening the Speaker and said that it is not be acceptable. “The speaker is the custodian of the House and he can allot any seat to anyone. We are not supposed to debate with the Speaker over such petty things when there are several burning topics to be debated over in the House,” said Baruah.
AGP MlA Phani Bhusan Choudhury later termed the incident as unfortunate and urged the members of the House to debate over the issues that have been plaguing the state and not over such petty issues.