Samajwadi Party MLA Atul Pradhan on Tuesday livestreamed proceedings of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly via Facebook while protesting in the well, drawing the ire of the speaker who asked him to leave the House and suspended him for the entire session.
Speaker Satish Mahana said it had come to his notice that a member went live on Facebook while the Samajwadi Party MLAs were protesting in the well of the House over alleged irregularities and police atrocities during the voting in the bypoll to the Rampur assembly seat.
The speaker later said he had verified that it was SP MLA Atul Pradhan, who was asked to leave the House for the entire session. While the Sardhana MLA immediately left the House, the SP members requested the speaker to review his decision as the first-time legislator was not aware of the assembly rules.
Holding that “ignorance of law is not an excuse”, the speaker said: “Pradhan will not be allowed in the House.” However, on being insisted, the speaker allowed him to attend the proceedings after 1 pm on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, as soon as the House assembled at 11 am, the Samajwadi Party members raised the issue of alleged police high-handedness in Rampur on Monday. SP MLA Manoj Pandey alleged that the police entered the homes of people and beat them up. The SP MLAs entered the well of the House and raised slogans denouncing the government. The SP had given notice under rule 56 of the House seeking adjournment of the proceedings to discuss the Rampur issue.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna denied the charges levelled by the opposition members and claimed that no wrong was committed and polling in Rampur remained peaceful.
Mahana said he was ready to allow the opposition to raise this issue as per rules. He asked the opposition members to restore order and go back to their seats. However, the opposition refused to relent, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings of the House for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, the state assembly was adjourned sine die on Tuesday. The business advisory committee of the house had approved the agenda of the house for three sittings. However, the House was adjourned only after two sittings.