West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday slammed the BJP over Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha after a debate on the cash-for-query allegations. She said the move was unacceptable and betrayed India’s parliamentary democracy.

Talking to the media, Banerjee said she felt sad to see the attitude of the BJP. She questioned how the BJP can betray parliamentary democracy. She said the BJP did not even allow Mahua to explain her stand in the House. She added full injustice had been done to the expelled MP.

Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress stands in full support of Moitra. She said the BJP could not defeat the Trinamool in elections, so they have resorted to vendetta politics. She said Moitra will return to Parliament with a bigger mandate. Banerjee said the BJP thought it can do whatever it wants as they have a brute majority. She added that a day will come when the BJP will not be in power.

After her expulsion from the Lok Sabha, Moitra told reporters outside Parliament that said will fight it out over the next 30 years inside and outside Parliament, inside the gutter and on the streets. She accused the BJP of hating Muslims and women. She claimed Adani was buying all of India’s ports and airports. She said Adani shareholders are foreign investors and the Home Ministry was giving them clearance to buy India’s infrastructure.

Reacting to her expulsion, Moitra said there was no evidence of any cash, any gifts anywhere. She said she had been expelled for sharing her Lok Sabha portal login. She said there are no rules governing the sharing of logins. She said tomorrow the CBI will be sent to her house and she is going to be harassed for the next six months.

Many Opposition parties have supported Moitra over the way she was expelled without getting a chance to put forth her stand.

The BJP on Friday appointed central observers to oversee the selection of chief ministers for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. After getting approval from the party’s parliamentary board, National General Secretary Vinod Tawde, Rajya MP Saroj Pandey and defence Minister Rajnath Singh have been appointed as central observers for Rajasthan.

For Madhya Pradesh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and OBC Morcha National President K Laxman and National Secretary Asha Lakra have been appointed. For Chhattisgarh National General secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam, Union Ports, shipping waterways and Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Tribal Minister Arjun Munda have been made central observers.

According to reports the observers are likely to travel to the respective state to oversee the meetings of newly elected MLAs where the future chief ministers are going to be named. No decision has been taken yet on the choices of the chief minister and the party will keep in mind organizational, governance, regional and social interests in picking the new chief minsters.

The BJP defeated Congress in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and retained Madhya Pradesh with a landslide victory. This has given a boost to Prime Minister Nartendra Modi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In Chhattisgarh the BJP got an absolute majority with BJP winning 54 seats and the Congress trailed behind at 35 seats.

In Rajasthan the BJP won a total of 115 out of 199 seats. In Madhya Pradesh the BJP managed to retain power after winning 163 seats in the 230 member state assembly. But The BJP could manage only 8 seats in the 119 member Telangana assembly as the Congress emerged victorious in the state elections defeating the the K Chandra Sekhar Rao led Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS). Revanth took the oath as chief minister of Telangana on Thursday. Since the results of the state elections leaders of the three parties have been meeting the top management including party president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah.

BJP MP Giriraj Singh has stirred a controversy on Wednesday after he criticized West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s participation in the Kolkata International Film Festival where she was seen shaking a leg with Bollywood actor Salman Khan. In video circulating on social media Giriraj Singh was seen saying that Mamata Banerjee doing thumka at the film festival is not appropriate.

Lok Sabha MP strongly protested the comment. Giriraj Singh clarified later that he used the word jashn and not thumka and he was not wrong in criticizing Mamata Banerjee for celebrating film festival when West Bengal is riddled with corruption. Singh added the TMC leaders are exaggerating my words.

The official handle of Trinamool Congress shared the video in which Giriraj said thumka and also swung his body from side to side. The TMC said this video evidence shows Singh not just uttering the word thumka twice but also making gestures that leave no room for misinterpretation. The party said Singh’s denial is another textbook example of BJP strategy to engage in shameful conduct  and then brazenly defend it.

The party added Union Minister Giriraj Singh bjp now joins the list of leaders who made degrading comments about Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The TMC said it is evident the BJP leaders find it incredibily hard to fathom a woman in power challenging their authority. The party said the BJP’s archaic mindset is steeped in gender biases is blatantly on display.

Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra said Giriraj Singh’s words against the only woman chief minister of India is shocking. She told Giriraj Singh that the reason they danced in Bengal is because they don’t have to put up with the likes of him. She said the misogyny and patriarchy that is practiced by the BJP every single day tell a different story altogether.