Maharashtra: Storm in the Assembly

The much awaited two day Monsoon session of Maharashtra Assembly is over but the House saw political storm which affected the smooth functioning. The session began on Monday, July 5 with suspension of twelve BJP MLAs from the House for a period of one year for alleged misbehaviour with the speaker in chair and Shiv Sena legislator Bhaskar Jadhav. The conflict began when Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal stood up to introduce a resolution in the legislative assembly seeking the release of empirical data on OBCs by the Centre for providing political reservation to the community in the local bodies in the state. Even before Bhujbal read out the solution, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised a point of order which was allowed by the speaker in chair. But while Fadnavis was speaking, few BJP legislators entered the Well of the House.

Amid the din, Jadhav asked Bhujbal to table the  resolution. While the resolution was passed in chaos, Jadhav adjourned the House for ten minutes. Later Jadhav told the Assembly that while he was sitting in the speaker’s chamber, Fadnavis reached there followed by other BJP leaders. Jadhav said that the BJP legislators misbehaved and used abusive language against him. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab who moved the suspension resolution, said “ Twelve members misbehaved in the House and used abusive language against the speaker in the chair. They also attempted to pull up the speaker’s mic and mace.”

The suspended legislators include Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Parag Alvani, Harish Pimple, Ram Satpute, Jayakumar Rawal, Yogesh Sagar, Narayan Kuche and Kirtikumar Bhangdiya. After the resolution was passed, BJP legislators staged a walkout. Fadnavis on the floor of the House acknowledged that while the language used by some of the legislators was “inappropriate”, they had offered apology immediately. He requested the government not to take action without holding discussion with the opposition. Outside the House, Fadnavis said that the resolution of suspension passed is one-sided and a deliberate attempt to reduce the Opposition numbers. Later the12 suspended BJP MLAs met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and requested his intervention in the matter

On the second and last day of session of Legislature the opposition party workers held protests  outside Vidhan Bhavan Complex and other parts of the state. The session started on time while Devendra Fadnavis and other leaders of the party squatted  on the stairs of  Vidhan Bhavan building. Protests were held in Pune and Nagpur and other parts of Maharashtra also.