New Delhi: Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla adjourned proceedings of the lower house till 2 PM on Friday amid sloganeering by Opposition members.
The opposition MPs have been demanding a discussion on several key issues of public importance, including the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise being carried out by the Election Commission (EC) in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
"There's a way to register a protest. If you don't want to run the Parliament...the house is adjourned till 2:00 PM today," Birla said while addressing the lower house.
This comes after the opposition leaders entered the well of the Lok Sabha while holding placards.
Before adjourning, the Speaker urged the opposition members to allow the lower house to function normally.
He objected to opposition members displaying banners. He said the stalemate is not good.
"Come, there will be a discussion to end the stalemate. There will also be representatives from the government...If there is disagreement, it should be expressed as per house norms," Birla said.
Earlier in the day, Congress MP Manickam Tagore moved an adjournment motion notice to discuss the "Mass Disenfranchisement of 52 Lakh Voters in Bihar", which he called as a "deliberate assault on the constitution and democracy by the Modi Government using the Election Commission."
The Parliament has witnessed frequent adjournments for the last four days since it began on July 21. Yesterday, the proceedings in both houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day amid protests by the opposition.
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday joined the protest by MPs of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) against the ongoing SIR of voter rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The protest, which entered its fifth consecutive day, was held at Parliament's Makar Dwar.
Several senior Congress leaders, including the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and party leader Priyanka Gandhi, also participated in the protest. The MPs marched from the Gandhi statue on the Parliament premises ahead of the start of the day's session.
The MPs were seen carrying multiple posters and a large banner that read "SIR- Attack on Democracy."
The India bloc MPs, at the Parliament premises, raised slogans against the Centre, chanting "Modi sarkar down down" and "Stop the attack on democracy." The MPs also tore down the posters in a symbolic gesture of rejecting the Bihar SIR.
The opposition leaders have been demanding that the Prime Minister address both houses and the nation on crucial issues, including the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack and the ongoing SIR exercise being carried out by the Election Commission in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
The opposition has also demanded that PM Modi respond to the repeated claims made by US President Donald Trump of initiating a "ceasefire" between India and Pakistan following Operation Sindoor.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
