Lok Sabha adjourned for day over women's bill trouble

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day Wednesday after Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad staged noisy protests demanding that the seven MPs suspended in the Rajya Sabha a day earlier be taken back.

The trio also reiterated their opposition to the women's bill passed in the upper house Tuesday, reserving 33 percent seats in all legislatures for women, saying the proposed legislation should give special privileges to women from the Dalit, tribal and minority communities.

Angry MPs, led by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Yadav, Janata Dal-United's (JD-U) Sharad Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Lalu Prasad, shouted "call the marshals" -- a reference to marshals forcibly evicting the seven suspended  MPs from the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

The MPs denounced the use of marshals to forcibly evict the seven suspended Rajya Sabha MPs: SP's Kamal Akhtar, Veerpal Singh Yadav, Amir Alam Khan and Nand Kishore Yadav, JD-U's Ejaz Ali, Lok Janshakti Party's Sabir Ali and RJD's Subhash Prasad Yadav.

The three veterans said the Lok Sabha would not be allowed to function until the Rajya Sabha revoked the suspension of their colleagues. They raised slogans demanding quotas for Muslims, Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the women's reservation bill.

As the Yadav trinity marched towards Speaker Meira Kumar's podium raising slogans against the government, she first adjourned the house till noon.

When the house reassembled at noon, the Yadavs again led their MPs toward's the speaker, who then adjourned the Lok Sabha till 2 p.m.

The same situation continued when the parliamentarians reassembled at 2 p.m. and the house was adjourned till 11 a.m. Thursday.

The Trinamool Congress, which too has opposed the bill in the present form, did not join the protest.

The divide in the JD-U over the contentious legislation also came to the fore Wednesday with only one party MP, Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lallan', joining Sharad Yadav in the protests.

However, party MP Mangani Lal Mandal said the party was "very much united". The JD-U had supported the legislation in the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha is expected to pass the bill before it takes a three-week break March 16.