BSP MLA in MP suspended for supporting CAA, seeks apology

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday suspended party's MLA in Madhya Pradesh Rama Bai for supporting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The MLA later claimed that her statement had been "distorted by the media", and sought forgiveness.

Mayawati has been strongly criticising the new law which provides for the grant of citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who came to India before December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Rama Bai, who represents Patheriya Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district, on Saturday evening, supported the Act at a function in her constituency in the presence of Union minister Prahlad Patel. Patel lauded Rama Bai's stand. Taking a strong note of it, Mayawati, in a tweet on Sunday, said,

"The BSP is a disciplined party and it takes prompt action against its MPs and MLAs who break discipline."

"Taking this into account, the party suspends Madhya Pradesh's Patheriya MLA Rama Bai Parihar for supporting CAA. She has been banned from taking part in party functions," the BSP supremo tweeted in Hindi.

Later in the evening, Rama Bai accused the media of distorting her statement and sought "forgiveness" from Mayawati, saying the BSP supremo was like "my father and mother".

"I am and will always be with Behenji (as Mayawati is fondly called) till my last breath. Even if she throws me out of the party, I will only support her. I cannot think of being separated from Behenji. If I have angered her in anyway, I take my words back," she told reporters.

"She is like my father and mother. I have made mistakes in the past, but she has always forgiven me. I am sure she will forgive me this time as well. The media has distorted my statement and has not presented it the way I had said it," she claimed.

The BSP had voted against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Parliament, terming it as unconstitutional.