Din in Odisha Assembly over Rahul Gandhi's disqualification

On Monday, the Odisha legislature was suspended until 4 p.m. after Congress MLAs disrupted the House by observing a "black day" in protest of Rahul Gandhi's exclusion from the Lok Sabha.

During Question Hour, Congress members marched into the House well dressed in black and shouted anti-BJP and anti-Centre chants, branding the saffron party a "killer of democracy." The Speaker's podium was also attempted to be scaled by members of Congress. Speaker B K Arukha had to adjourn the meeting until 4 p.m. because he couldn't manage the commotion in the House.

On March 24, the Parliament was adjourned multiple times as Congressmen protested Rahul Gandhi's exclusion from the Lok Sabha. On Monday, Congress members met in the home of CLP leader Narasingha Mishra before the start of the assembly's business. Sarat Pattnayak, the president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, attended the meeting as well.

Pattnayak declared, "We have been observing 'black day,' and we will meet the governor of Odisha. I came to the assembly to invite our MLAs to participate in the demonstration outside Raj Bhavan."

When questioned about his party's "silence" on Rahul Gandhi's disqualification, BJD leader and Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik responded, "The CM is terrified of the BJP as his party leaders were implicated in chit fund and mining scams. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are feared by them."  Senior Congress leader and MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati claimed that "democracy has been slaughtered" as a result of the BJP's dominance at the Centre while speaking to reporters outside the House.

Jayanarayan Mishra, the BJP lawmaker who leads the opposition, claimed that "action against Rahul Gandhi has been taken in accordance with the law." He questioned, "How can they call what they did the assassination of democracy?"

A day after being found guilty of defamation by a court in Surat, Gujarat, Gandhi, who represents the Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala, was removed from the Lok Sabha on March 24.