Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Thursday admitted a privilege motion against leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari that has been moved by four lawmakers elected on a BJP ticket who have since moved to the Trinamul Congress. Unlike the alacrity with which the Speaker acted on the privilege motion against the leader of Opposition, the defection issue pertaining to the four lawmakers is pending since last year. A fifth MLA, Mukul Roy, was cleared of anti-defection charges earlier by the Speaker’s office.

On Wednesday evening, MLAs Krishna Kalyani (Raigunj), Biswajit Das (Bagda), Tanmay Ghosh (Barjora) and Soumen Roy (Kaliagunj) had complained to the Speaker that Adhikari had threatened them with IT raids while walking out of the House during the discussion on the state home department budget.

The four lawmakers claimed they had raised their voices to protest the unruly behaviour of the BJP MLAs while chief minister Mamata Banerjee was speaking.

Prodded by the Trinamul, the first to complain with the Speaker's office was Kalyani and then the others followed.

“This move is going to vitiate the atmosphere inside the Assembly even further. Polarisation of voters has left these two forces within the confines of the Assembly. Both sides believe they are here to rule indefinitely, the BJP at the Centre and the Trinamul in Bengal,” said a CPM leader.

Ever since Mamata and Suvendu took oath as chief minister and leader of Opposition respectively, outside the floor of the House both have avoided each other. Inside the House, before her bypoll victory from Bhowanipore, those present have said that Mamata used to avoid eye contact with Suvendu who became the leader of Opposition after having defeated her in Nandigram in the Assembly elections held about a year ago.

Adhikari has denied all the charges against him. “The onus of proof lies with those who have brought the allegation,” Adhikari said.

The four MLAs have also claimed that the leader of the Opposition had issued death threats to them.

As per the rules, the complaint would be sent to the privilege committee of the Assembly where the complainants and the accused would both present their submissions.

“Anti-defection cases are hardly heard. But this time we believe the government will act quickly. They want to silence Suvendu on the floor of the House,” said a BJP lawmaker from North Bengal.