Lok Sabha adjourned over Mayawati's money garland

By Indo Asian News Service, New Delhi, March 16 : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was Tuesday put on the mat over a multi-crore money garland given to its leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati with Samajwadi Party and Congress MPs questioning the extravagance in the Lok Sabha, leading to the house being adjourned.

The house was adjourned during zero hour after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Congress leader Jagadambika Pal tried to raise the issue. Speaker Meira Kumar, however, invited other MPs who had given notice earlier to raise issues on other topics.

MPs from the SP and Congress belonging to Uttar Pradesh were up on their feet while BSP members protested noisily. Amid the uproar, the speaker adjourned the house for 40 minutes at 12.20 p.m.

Critics alleged that the multi-crore garland was just a small part of the extravagant Rs.200 crore celebrations Monday to mark 25 years of the BSP and party founder Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary.

The garland made of thousands of Rs.1,000 currency notes was presented to Mayawati at the rally in Lucknow Monday.