The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a resolution suspending five Congress MPs for the remainder of the session after being named by the Speaker for disrupting House proceedings. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a resolution amid the din to suspend the five.
"I move the following that this House having taken misconduct of TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden, Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and Dean Kuriakose in utter disregard to the House and the authority of this Chair and having been named by the chair to be suspended from the service of the House for reminder session," the resolution read.
Bhartruhari Mahtab who was chairing the proceedings suspended TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden, S Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and Dean Kuriakose for the rest of the session.
Who are these 5 Congress MPs?
Four Congress MPs belong to Kerala while Jothimani is from Tamil Nadu. TN Prathapan won the 2019 Lok Sabha Election from Kerala's Thrissur constituency by defeating Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Rajaji Mathew Thomas with a margin of 93,633 votes. Hibi Eden is representing the Ernakulam constituency in the Lok Sabha. Eden won the 2019 election by defeating Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate P Rajeev with a margin of 1,69,153 votes.
S Jothimani won the 2019 Lok Sabha Election from Tamil Nadu's Karur by defeating All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) veteran M Thambidurai with a massive margin of 4,20,546 votes.
Ramya Haridas won the 2019 Lok Sabha Election from Kerala's Alathur constituency by defeating Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Dr PK Biju with a margin of 1,58,968 votes. Dean Kuriakose is representing the Idukki constituency in the Lok Sabha. Kuriakose won the 2019 election by defeating Independent candidate Joice George with a margin of 1,71,053 votes.
Derek O'Brien suspended
Earlier in the day, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien was suspended from participating in the remaining sessions of the winter parliamentary session, scheduled to run until December 22. The suspension comes in the wake of what has been termed "gross misconduct" and "defying the Chair" during Thursday morning's proceedings.
Rajya Sabha proceedings were on Thursday adjourned twice during the pre-lunch period amid protests by opposition MPs after TMC leader Derek O'Brien was suspended. The motion to suspend O'Brien for the remainder of the session was adopted with a voice vote and the chairman announced that the TMC MP stands suspended from the House.
