Himanta Biswa Sarma retracted his statements inside the state Assembly after the Congress filed a breach of privilege complaint against the Assam Chief Minister on Wednesday.

A complaint was filed by Congress Legislature Party with the Principal Secretary of Assam Assembly for Sarma’s remarks during a debate on former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha.

Sarma later withdrew his complaint, however, the Congress has not withdrawn its privilege notice and demanded an apology from the Assam CM.

A complaint letter by signed by over 20 Congress MLAs and addressed to the Principal Secretary said: “Today in the House, the Leader of the House Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has stated that he is aware of the discussion held in the ACLP (Assam Congress Legislature Party) room. Further, he has also stated that some Hon’ble Member of the ACLP has informed him about the decision taken in the CLP meeting held on 28th March, 2023.”

The ACLP said the statement by Sarma was false and hence was bringing a breach of privilege against Leader of the House Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, while urging the principal secretary to take up the notice for “further action” according to the law.

Commotion erupted in the Assam Assembly on Wednesday morning after the Congress introduced an Adjournment Motion to discuss the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

Introducing the notice, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia said they want to send a resolution to the President of India requesting her to uphold the Constitution as it is the same for every citizen and the executive must act fairly to protect it.

In his reply to the motion, Himanta Sarma said that expressing opinions on judicial matters is unprecedented and claimed he knew that the ACLP had taken a decision last night to “create noise” in the House.

 Replying to the motion, Mr Sarma said, “It’s unprecedented that we’re expressing opinions on a judicial matter here. I know that a decision was taken by Congress Legislature Party last night to create noise here.

Sarma later parts of his claim that someone from the opposition had informed him of the Congress’ plan the previous night.

West Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday staged an overnight sit-in in front of Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue on Kolkata’s Red Road to protest Centre’s alleged “discrimination” against the TMC-ruled state.

Accompanied by top leaders, including Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas—and workers of her Trinamool Congress (TMC), Banerjee sat overnight in front the Dalit icon’s bust in the heart of Kolkata from Wednesday noon to protest the BJP-led Centre’s stoppage” of funds to West Bengal for MGNREGA and other schemes of the housing and public works departments.

Reverting her earlier stance on staying equidistant from the BJP and the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the TMC supremo on Wednesday, urged political parties across the country to form a united front for ousting the saffron party in next year’s national elections.

Mamata Banerjee termed the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a fight between citizens of India versus the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and urged people, irrespective of region or religion, to unite and defeat the right-wing party and save India’s poor.

Dubbing the BJP as ‘Dushasana’ and ‘Duryodhana’ – the two villains from the Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’, Banerjee urged all political parties in India to unify and oust the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre.

She claimed that ‘Duryodhana’ BJP must be ousted to “save” India’s common man and the country’s democracy.

A senior officer of the Kolkata Police said that heavy security has been deployed in and around the venue where the West Bengal CM is currently staging her 30-hour sit-in protest which is likely to end by late Thursday evening.

After choosing to remain aloof from the BJP-Congress tussle, Mamata Banerjee participated in the grand old party’s strategy meet to protest Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament as the Opposition presented a united front.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is all geared up to step up its ‘poster war’ with the BJP to another level as the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led party readies to launch posters calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a nationwide campaign in eleven languages.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai and senior AAP leader said that the Kejriwal-led party will display anti-PM Modi posters in states across the country on March 30, adding that all state units of the AAP have been directed to paste posters—which have been printed in 11 languages— in their respective states.

Last week, the BJP-AAP ‘poster war’ escalated after the saffron party-sponsored posters calling for the removal of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were seen plastered in parts of the national capital, days after similar posters were posted by “anonymous” persons targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Tuesday last, the posters calling for the removal of PM Modi to “save the country” were removed during a large-scale crackdown by the Delhi Police, which also led to the arrest of six accused, including two printing press owners.

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The arrested printing press owners allegedly told the police that they had received an order to print 50,000 “Modi hatao, desh bachao” posters.

Police said the arrests were made for defacing public property and under the law, the posters were required to carry the name of the printing press. They said that only 36 cases out of 138 filed were for the anti-Modi posters.

In retaliation, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa put up anti-Kejriwal posters with the slogan ‘Arvind Kejriwal ko hatao, Dilli Bachao (Remove Arvind Kejriwal, Save Delhi’ with a header calling the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Corrupt, Dishonest and Dictator, across the national capital on March 23—two days after the Delhi Police’s crackdown on anti-Modi posters which read ‘Modi hatao, desh bachao (remove Modi, save the country).’

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