Maharashtra Assembly: 12 BJP MLAs suspended for a year

Amid high-voltage drama in the Maharashtra legislature, 12 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators were suspended for a year over alleged abusive language used against the presiding officer, Bhaskar Jadhav, and misconduct in the state Assembly. The BJP denied the allegations and said the action was taken with an intention to reduce the party’s strength on the floor of the assembly.

The suspended legislators are Ashish Shelar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Yogesh Sagar, Parag Alavani, Sanjay Kute, Harish Pimple, Ram Satpute, Jaykumar Gore, Bunty Bhangdiya, Abhimanyu Pawar and Narayan Kuche. They won’t be able to enter the legislature premises during suspension.

State parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab moved the proposal, which was passed through a voice vote by the ruling parties with a comfortable majority. Leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis admitted to use of objectionable language against the presiding officer, but denied use of abusive language. He said they have apologised to Jadhav for the unruly behaviour. He alleged the ruling parties have used the incident to reduce the number of opposition legislators in the state Assembly.

Both the ruling and opposition benches were involved in a heated argument on Monday after a resolution was moved to seek empirical data from the Centre to provide political reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body elections. Food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal said the Centre had conducted Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) and the OBC reservation issue would be resolved, if the Centre provided it to the state. He also said the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government too tried but failed to acquire the data. Fadnavis said the resolution is unlikely to give desired results as the Supreme Court in its order specifically mentioned collecting empirical data and the state was wasting time. The resolution was passed in the pandemonium following which a few Opposition legislators reached up to the chair of the speaker and tried to snatch the mike and the mace. Jadhav was presiding over the House proceedings.

Later, the BJP legislators reportedly used abusive language against the presiding officer in the speaker’s cabin. Jadhav said, “I have never seen such behaviour of legislators in my legislative career of 36 years. The BJP legislators tried to corner me and used abusive language in the cabin. I requested Fadnavis, who was also present in the cabin, to ask their legislators to calm down but he refused.”

“Some of our legislators used objectionable language, but no one abused the presiding officer. The brawl started after Sena legislators reached the cabin. There could have been a scuffle had I not intervened. I even apologised to Jadhav for the misconduct. Despite that, the ruling parties passed the resolution to reduce the number of opposition MLAs,” Fadnavis said in the lower House. “It was Bhaskar Jadhav who used objectionable language in the deputy speaker’s cabin,” he told reporters.

In the evening, all suspended legislators met governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and requested him to seek a report from the government and take action. “A conspiracy was hatched to suspend BJP MLAs. We have been accused of what has not happened. The government has assured us to do the needful,” Shelar said after meeting Koshyari at Raj Bhavan.

Fadnavis denied the possibility of Speaker’s election. “There are rulings where the courts have said the election cannot be held if MLAs are in suspension.”

In March 2017, the Fadnavis government had suspended 19 MLAs of Congress and NCP for interrupting budget speech of state finance minister.