Uproar in Assembly over 'cash-for-vote'

Kolkata, Jul 23 (UNI) The West Bengal Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes as members from the treasury and Opposition benches traded charges against each other regarding ''cash-for-vote'' in the Trust vote in Parliament last night.

CPI (M) MLA Dilip Sirkar said, ''July 22 will be considered as the 'black day' in Indian Parliamentary system as the entire country noticed the 'cash-for-vote scam' in the Lower House during the debate on the Confidence Motion moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.'' He alleged that the Congress won the trust vote with the help of large scale horse-trading using ''means of money.'' Countering Mr Sirkar's allegation, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Manas Bhunia said, ''the Speaker has announced that the matter would be investigated and hence his party cannot be blamed for it.'' Pandemonioum again broke during the proceedings when Trinamool Congress members, led by Ms Sonali Guha, trooped into the well of the House taking exception to a remark of CPI (M) MLA Kanika Ganguly, which according to them, was an ''insult'' to their party supremo.

Without naming Ms Mamata Banerjee, Ms Ganguly had alleged that the abstention by the Trinamool chief in the trust vote was another ''example'' of horse-trading which helped the UPA win the Confidence Motion.

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