From Indira Gandhi to Vijay Mallya; These 17 MPs Have Been Expelled from the Parliament

Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha on Friday after the house adopted the report of its Ethics Committee that held her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interest.

After a heated debate over the panel report, that was presented before the lower house, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the Trinamool member for “unethical conduct”, which was adopted by a voice vote.

The Ethics Committee report found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the House by sharing her Lok Sabha credentials — User ID and Password of Lok Sabha Member’s Portal, with unauthorised persons which had an irrepressible impact on national security. Mahua Moitra was representing the Krishnanagar parliamentary constituency of West Bengal after winning the election in 2019.

However, this isn’t the first time when a Member of Parliament has been expelled from the House. Earlier in 2005, the then Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee had moved a motion to expel 10 members on the same day the report was introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Here is a list of MPs who have been expelled from the Parliament:

1. HG Mudgal: The Congress MP was the first ever Member of Parliament to be expelled from the house. Mudgal was compelled to resign from the Parliament in 1951 after he was implicated in accepting money for favours in Parliament from a business association.
2. Indira Gandhi: Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s expulsion happened based on a resolution tabled by the then PM Morarji Desai on December 14, 1978 and voted by the house. When the resolution was put to vote, 279 MPs voted in its favour, while 138 went against it. Indira Gandhi became the first former Prime Minister to be hauled under the breach of privilege charge in a democracy.
3. Subramanian Swamy: Subramanian Swamy, a Jan Sangh leader at the time, was expelled from the Rajya Sabha in 1976 during the Emergency for his derogatory conduct.
4. Cash for query: In 2005, 10 Lok Sabha members — Annasahed M K Patil, Y G Mahajan, Suresh Chandel, Pradeep Gandhi, and Chandra Pratap Singh from the BJP; Narendra Kumar Kushwaha, Lal Chandra Kol, and Rajaram Pal from the BSP; along with Manoj Kumar (RJD) and Ramsevak Singh from Congress — faced expulsion. The move was taken after they were captured on camera accepting money in exchange for raising questions in the House.
5. Chhatrapal Singh Lodha: Chhatrapal Singh Lodha from Orissa, who was also involved in the 2005 cash-for-question scandal, was expelled from the Rajya Sabha on the recommendations of the Ethics Committee.
6. Vijay Mallya: Mallya, an independent MP from Karnataka, faced expulsion from Rajya Sabha after the parliamentary panel examining the matter related to his alleged loan default of over Rs 9,400 crore rupees unanimously favouring the action.
7. Rahul Gandhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi faced expulsion from Lok Sabha a day after a trial court in Surat found him guilty of criminal defamation and imposed a two-year jail term for ‘Modi surname’ remark he made before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, his Lok Sabha membership was restored in August after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the defamation case.