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For the second successive day, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati came under attack in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday with members of Samajwadi Party and Congress raising questions over her lavish rally and demanding a probe into the source of the 'multi-crore' garland presented to her.
The SP and Congress members created ruckus since noon, forcing two adjournments till 2 pm. When similar scenes were witnessed again, Deputy Speaker Karia Munda adjourned the House for recess till April 12, hours before the scheduled adjournment.
As soon as the Question Hour ended at noon, SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and some of his party colleagues wanted to raise the issue of BSP's lavish rally in Lucknow on Monday where Mayawati was presented a garland made of currency notes in the denomination of Rs 1,000.
Speaker Meira Kumar disallowed them from speaking, saying the matters of Zero Hour should be taken up.
This agitated the SP members, who along with Congress' Jagdambika Pal, were on their feet and criticised Mayawati. In the din, they were heard saying that the garland was estimated to be worth Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore and demanded a probe to ascertain where the money came from. In view of the uproar, the Speaker adjourned the House till 1300 hours.
When it re-assembled, similar scenes were witnessed, forcing Munda to adjourn the House till 2 pm. Pandemonium was repeated when the House met again and after about 15 minutes, it was adjourned for recess.
Some BSP members were seen countering them, but what they said could not be heard in the din. The Speaker disallowed them, saying listed matters of Zero Hour should be allowed to be raised.
However, her repeated pleas went unheeded and she adjourned the House. The issue of lavish celebrations of BSP's 25th founding day found its echo in Lok Sabha on Monday also when the SP chief accused Mayawati of spending Rs 200 crore on the rally.
Yadav was joined by party colleagues along with Pal in alleging that Mayawati was celebrating while Bareilly was burning in communal fire.