Puducherry: In spite of the high court order upholding their appointments, BJP MLAs nominated to the House by the Centre, V. Swaminathan, K.G. Shankar and V. Selva Ganapathy were stopped from entering the Puducherry Assembly once again on Monday.
The three MLAs, along with hundreds of BJP workers, marched towards the Assembly when they were detained.
As the BJP legislators made it clear that they will enter the Assembly on Monday, prohibitory order under section 30(2) of the police act has been promulgated in boulevard areas for 25 days from Monday by Senior Superintendent of Police, Apoorva Gupta.
When the procession reached Anna Salai police arrested BJP volunteers including Mr Saminathan and detained entry to the Assembly. Tight security was arranged both inside and outside the Assembly premises, to stop the members from entering the House.
The three BJP members were nominated by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi last year after which speaker V. Vaithilingam on November 12, 2017 cancelled their nominations, declaring them in-valid.
Despite the court ruling in favour of the nominated members, Vaithilingam refused to allow the members in the House in the last session also. The Madras High Court had reportedly asked the members to approach the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Opposition AIADMK and N R Congress staged a walk-out in the territorial Assembly on Monday. N R Congress were protesting against the tight security provided to the Assembly and failure of the Congress government in fulfilling promises it made and AIADMK legistors staged walk out as the Speaker failed to admit an adjournment motion given by the party.
Replying to the allegations raised by the leader of opposition N Rangasamy on the tight security arrangements on the Assembly, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said that Assembly was not locked.
“The opposition should register their protest inside the assembly instead of staging walk out all the time,” said the Chief Minister.
On the other hand Puducherry Legislative Assembly on Monday greeted DMK leader M. Karunanidhi on his 95th birthday on Sunday. Reading out the greeting message, Speaker Vaithilingam detailed about the efficient functioning of Mr Karunanidhi and how he led the DMK party besides the posts held by him.
