Gandhinagar

Congress MLAs today created ruckus in and outside the assembly house complaining that they were not given enough time to discuss the issues in the assembly.

During the discussion on demands of Home Ministry in ongoing budget session of Gujarat Assembly today, Shankersinh Vaghela and Amit Chavda from Congress were given time to speak.

At one point when Deputy Speaker Atmarambhai Parmar told leader of opposition and Congress MLA Shankersinh Vaghela to conclude his speech, Vaghela and other Congress MLAs started protest.

Congress MLAs threw papers, seat cushion, books and created ruckus that has been not witnessed inside the assembly house in recent past.

Deputy Speaker suspended all Congress MLAs barring Shankersinh Vaghela for a day. However Congress MLAs continued protest in every possible way. As per Speaker’s order Sargent took Congress MLAs out of the house. In some cases they had to apply force which sparked off physical fight. Later Shankersinh walked out from the house.

Congress MLAs attacked Deputy Speaker’s chamber within Assembly complex and uprooted a wooden door, uprooted plantation, broke down glass and damaged benches.

Though video cameras are not allowed to enter inside the assembly complex, the Speaker today gave special permission to shoot the damage to property Congress MLAs had caused.

On Speaker’s directive, Secretary of Gujarat Assembly has filed police case for damage to property in assembly complex.

Congress MLAs barring Leader of Opposition are suspended for two days. It means they will not be allowed to step inside the assembly tomorrow.

Addressing the media, Shankersinh Vaghela said Congress MLAs will boycott the group photo session tomorrow.

While Congress alleges that the BJP government and Speaker’s Chair don’t give opportunity to opposition party to raise issues, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pradipsinh Jadeja in a statement said that it is Kamkaj Salahkar Samiti that decides allocation of time for proceedings in assembly. Supplementary questions asked by members in response of two statements under rule-44 – one on package to farmers due to unseasonal rain and second about coal mines allocated to Gujarat state by centre – took more time. He said Congress members refused to leave the floor even after they were suspended by Speaker. Some male members of Congress party misbehaved with female Sargent and Speaker’s staff. He said today’s incident was such that had never been witnessed in the past.

How Congress MLAs damaged public property and ransacked assembly lobby

In his statement issues in the evening, Leader of Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela said that Deputy Speaker sitting on Speaker’s Chair used the word ‘element’ for Congress MLAs which was unacceptable.

Vaghela further said Deputy Speaker asked him to sit down on direction of ministers. He said Congress MLAs Pravinbhai Rathod, Prahladbhai Patel, Baldevji Thakor, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Anil Joshiyara and Mohammad Javed Pirzara were injured in clash with Sargent.

Congress party later in the evening also released photographs of its injury its couple of MLAs suffered.

Vaghela in a statement said that Deputy Speaker was behaving like he himself was a Sargent. He said that even women Sargent were attempting to take gents MLAs of Congress party outside the house which was unacceptable.

Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil alleged conspiracy to push opposition members out when crucial discussion on the demands of Finance department was going to take place on Friday.

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PTI report adds:

Gandhinagar

Around 40 Congress MLAs, who were evicted from the Gujarat Legislative Assembly for indiscipline, today wrecked havoc near the Speaker’s cabin by breaking furniture and door panels to vent their anger against the Speaker as well as the government.

The incident happened during the second half of today’s session.

The Congress MLAs had come prepared to grill the BJP-led state government about law and order situation during the discussion on budget allotment for the Gujarat Home Department.

Taking the lead, Leader of Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela began his speech on a sarcastic note that like in all other parameters, Gujarat is also number one in crime.

Deputy Speaker Atmaram Parmar asked Vaghela to sum up his speech in five minutes since he was allotted only ten minutes.

When Vaghela expressed shock about the short time allotted for such an important issue, Parmar said that the whole discussion should be concluded within 30 minutes. Thus, on a pro-rata basis, the opposition got ten minutes, while the Gujarat Home Minister got 20 minutes to answer, Parmar said.

However, this did not go down well with Vaghela, who walked out of the House, which incited other Congress MLAs.

They teamed up and started shouting slogans against the Gujarat state government and the Speaker, claiming that it is a strategy to avoid the discussion.

Ignoring repeated warnings by the Speaker, these 40-odd Congress MLAs began shouting slogans and tore papers, while some of them even hurled seat pillows into the well of the House.