Reportedly barely 48 hours after the bjp launched its campaign in West bengal for 2024 lok sabha elections with amit Shah’s rally, 12 of the saffron party’s MLAs were booked for allegedly “insulting” the national anthem on the state assembly premises. The FIR was lodged at the Hare Street police station based on a complaint by the Secretary of the West bengal Legislative assembly, who in turn cited letters written to the Speaker by TMC MLAs by Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Tapas Ray. The bjp has called the FIR illegal, saying it will approach the courts on monday to quash it.

The sequence of events started on wednesday afternoon when trinamool congress MLAs, led by party supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, were protesting near the statue of BR Ambedkar within the assembly premises over the non-payment of central dues to the state government under various centrally sponsored schemes.

TMC MLAs complained to Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay that the bjp legislators raised the slogans when the ruling party MLAs were singing the national anthem. FIR was subsequently lodged against bjp MLAs Sankar Ghosh, Manoj Tigga, Sudip Kumar Mukherjee, Malati Reva Roy, Chandrani Barui, Niladri sekhar Dana, Mihir Goswami, Manoj Kumar Oraon, suman Kanjilal, Dipak Barman, and Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay.

Suvendu Adhikari was mentioned in the attached letter, but was not included in the formal FIR. “During the incident, the bjp MLAs blocked the gate of the South Portico and incited and provoked breach of peace at the said location. The investigation of the case is currently underway,” the case summary says. “Mamata Banerjee will not teach us nationalism. She has disregarded the national anthem. How dare they questions us,” bjp mla Agnimitra Paul said.

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