MP flags contradictions, gets Opposition backing

Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mahua Moitra's expulsion from Parliament on Friday became the latest rallying point of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) inside and outside the Lok Sabha.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi stood with Moitra in a rare show of solidarity with a non-Congress leader. And West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who once publicly censured Moitra, announced, "The party fully supports Mahua. She is a woman and a young MP."

Inside the House, the Congress and TMC jointly fought for Moitra. Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to take the correct decision. "Even in the court, an accused is given a chance to defend himself," he said, referring to the Opposition's demand to let Moitra speak during the debate on the ethics panel report.

The entire Opposition walked out of the Lok Sabha in protest before the motion to expel Moitra was passed. Minutes later, all senior MPs of the INDIA bloc came out of the new Parliament building with the first-time MP and stood next to her when she spoke in the Parliament premises for the last time before the 2024 elections.