By IANS
Bhopal : The Madhya Pradesh assembly Wednesday witnessed uproarious scenes with both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress members trading charges over the alleged bribing of a lawmaker.
The alleged bribing of Samajwadi Party legislator Kishore Samrite to vote in favour of Congress-supported independent candidate Vivek Tankha for the Rajya Sabha triggered the acrimony in the house.
Speaker Ishwardas Rohani repeatedly requested the members to take their seats but when neither the ruling party lawmakers nor the opposition members listened, he adjourned the house for 40 minutes.
However, the uproar started again when the house reassembled. The speaker, angry over the conduct of the Congress lawmakers, expressed anguish and rushed through the official business of the day in a couple of minutes.
This included passing by voice vote the finance bill for 2008-09 and related appropriation bill for Rs.444.98 billion. The bill was not debated.
SP state unit president Narayan Tripathi said the question of bribing Samrite does not arise since the party had already issued a whip in favour of Tankha.
“Samrite’s integrity is doubtful and he might be making baseless allegations at the behest of the BJP, which is conspiring to defame Tankha,” said Tripathi.
Samrite announced Monday he would not support Tankha.
Asserting that the allegation by Samrite does not hold water, Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi said: “The fact is that it was a conspiracy hatched at the behest of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to tarnish the image of Tankha, who was a lawyer in dumper purchase case against him”.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Wednesday said that the government would do everything required for the security of the Samajwadi Party lawmaker Kishore Samrite, who allegedly faces threat to his life from the Congress activists.