BJP claims Trinamool MP Kirti Azad smoked e-cigarette inside Lok Sabha, shares video

Kolkata, Dec 17 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Wednesday, claimed that cricketer-turned-politician and the Trinamool Congress MP Kirti Azad was smoking an electronic cigarette while sitting on the MP’s chair within the Parliament.

Last week, former Union Minister and senior BJP Lok Sabha member Anurag Singh Thakur wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, raising a serious complaint against an All India Trinamool Congress MP for allegedly using an electronic cigarette inside the Lok Sabha chamber, an act he described as a grave breach of Parliamentary rules and statutory provisions.

However, Thakur did not name the particular Lok Sabha member accused of smoking an electronic cigarette while sitting on the MP’s chair within the Parliament.

On Wednesday, BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, posted a video on the wall of his social media handle showing Kirti Azad as the Trinamool Congress MP smoking an electronic cigarette within the Parliament.

“The TMC MP accused by BJP MP Anurag Thakur of vaping inside Parliament is none other than Kirti Azad. For people like him, rules and laws clearly hold no meaning. Just imagine the audacity, hiding an e-cigarette in his palm while in the House!” Malviya said in his social media statement.

He also claimed that smoking might not be illegal in India, but using it in Parliament was entirely unacceptable. “Mamata Banerjee must clarify her MP’s misconduct,” Malviya said.

At the time the report was filed, there was no reaction either from Azad or from Trinamool Congress in the matter.

Last week, while raising the issue on the floor of the Parliament, Thakur reminded the Speaker that the manufacture, production, import, export, transport, sale, including online sale, distribution, storage and advertisement of electronic cigarettes had been completely prohibited across India under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act, 2019.

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