New Delhi, March 12 -- Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker, Vijender Gupta, on Wednesday hit back at Leader of Opposition of the House, Atishi, over her criticism of his conduct in running the Assembly proceedings.

In his reply to Atishi, Speaker Vijender Gupta said, "At the outset, let me reiterate that these are baseless allegations which seem to have been made more due to political considerations rather than facts."

"I have repeatedly clarified that my decision to keep out the members whom the House had suspended was strictly as per our Rule 277 read with the definition of 'precincts. ' The definition explains in detail the area covered under precincts and includes 'approaches'. Further, it also empowers the Speaker to declare 'such o...