Lok Sabha Election 2024, Phase 1: Voting on 102 seats underway
In the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024, as many as 102 constituencies spanning across 21 states and Union Territories will elect their new MPs.
The Lok Sabha was disrupted on Wednesday amid protests over comments by Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde and a demand for a separate High Court in Telangana.
The first adjournment came within minutes after the House met at 11 a.m., when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 12 p.m.
When the House resumed, members from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) trooped near the Speaker’s podium, displaying placards and raising slogans demanding a separate High Court for the newly carved out state of Telangana.
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Congress members also raised slogans demanding suspension of Hegde, who had said that the ruling BJP was “here to change the Constitution” and remove the word “secular” from it.
The Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship at a function in Kukanur in Karnataka on Monday urged people to “claim with pride that they are Muslim, Christian, Lingayat, Brahmin, or a Hindu”, and said: “Those who, without knowing about their parental blood, call themselves secular, they don’t have their own identity…They don’t know about their parentage, but they are intellectuals.
“Some people say the Constitution says secular and you must accept it. We will respect the Constitution, but the Constitution has changed several times and it will change in the future too. We are here to change the Constitution and we’ll change it soon.”
“It’s a sensitive issue, the whole country is watching…” Congress leader in the House Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Members also protested against the treatment given to the family of Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan.
Amid noisy scenes, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 2 p.m.
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