Give at least 48 hours to study ethics panel report on Mahua Moitra: TMC tells Lok Sabha Speaker

Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee Friday said the party has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him to give at least 48 hours to read the ethics panel report recommending the expulsion of party MP Mahua Moitra.

The report was tabled in Lok Sabha on Friday amid uproar from the Opposition MPs who questioned the procedure followed by the panel and demanded a discussion on the report.

"The leader of the All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party wrote a letter to the honourable Speaker seeking a hard copy of the report immediately," Banerjee said.

He also said the party has sought 48 hours "so that we can get sufficient time to read the report". Mahua Moitra should be allowed to speak on the report, he said.

The Lok Sabha witnessed two adjournments on Friday over the report amid opposition protests.

Businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who allegedly paid Moitra to raise questions in Parliament about the Adani Group, had claimed in a signed affidavit that the TMC MP from Krishnanagar targeted industrialist Gautam Adani to "malign and embarrass" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At a meeting on November 9, the committee adopted its report recommending Moitra's expulsion from the Lok Sabha over the "cash-for-query" allegation. Six members of the panel, including suspended Congress member Preneet Kaur, voted in favour of the report. Four members of the panel belonging to opposition parties submitted dissent notes.

The opposition members termed the report a "fixed match" and said the complaint filed by BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a "shred of evidence".

Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel's recommendation.