Protesting against an attempt to "gag the voice" of their party chief Mamata Banerjee in Parliament, 23 Trinamool Congress MLAs courted arrest on Friday after undertaking a march to the Raj Bhavan.

Police said 23 Trinamool Congress legislators, including three women MLAs, were arrested for violating the prohibitory orders. The MLAs, led by party chief whip Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and party general secretary Partha Chatterjee, marched from the assembly house to the Raj Bhavan wearing black badges.

They were stopped by the police some distance away where they had squatted for a while. Later, they courted arrest. Chatterjee alleged that it was not just yesterday that the Trinamool chief was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha, but always.

"Every time she wanted to raise some issues concerning the state in the House, she was not allowed," he said. Banerjee had tendered her resignation in the Lok Sabha on Thursday for being disallowed to speak on infiltration into West Bengal from Bangladesh.

Chatterjee said their agitation was also to demand 'restoration of democracy' in the state. The leader of opposition in the state assembly Pankaj Banerjee, who did not participate in the march, said, "Trinamool Congress's voice was gagged both in Parliament and state Assembly. Parliamentary democracy is in peril in the state."

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