Maharashtra assembly monsoon session begins: 12 BJP MLAs suspended for a year
On Day 1 of the Maharashtra assembly’s monsoon session on Monday, 12 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were suspended for a year. Ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghahi (MVA) said disciplinary action was taken over their misconduct and use of abusive language used against presiding officer Bhaskar Jadhav.
The suspended legislators are: Ashish Shelar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkalkar, Yogesh Sagar, Parag Alavani, Sanjay Kute, Harish Pimple, Ram Satpute, Jaykumar Gore, Bunty Bangadiya, Abhimanyu Pawar and Narayan Kuche.
State parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab moved the proposal which was passed through voice vote by the ruling parties. Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis alleged that the ruling parties used the incident to reduce the number of Opposition legislators in the assembly.
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While admitting that the legislators used objectionable language against the presiding officer, he added that they apologised to Jadhav for their unruly behaviour.
The argument between the ruling and Opposition benches started over a resolution passed to seek empirical data from the Centre for political reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body elections. Food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal said the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government failed to acquire the data, while the latter said the resolution is unlikely to give desired results. The resolution was passed in the pandemonium following which a few BJP legislators reached up to the chair of the Speaker and tried to snatch the mic and the mace while Jadhav was presiding over the proceedings.
Later, the BJP MLAs reportedly used abusive language against Jadhav in the deputy speaker’s cabin. Jadhav said, “I have never seen such a behaviour in my entire legislative career of 36 years. The legislators never carry their differences over an issue out of the House. The BJP legislators tried to corner me and used abusive language in the cabin. I requested Devendra Fadnavis, who was also present in the cabin, to ask his legislators to calm down but he did not help.”
Fadnavis said, “The brawl started only after Shiv Sena legislators reached the cabin. Some of our legislators used objectionable language but I intervened and asked them to leave the place and a scuffle was avoided. I even apologised to Jadhav for their misconduct. Despite that, the ruling parties passed the resolution to reduce the number of Opposition MLAs.”
