Mumbai: The BJP Saturday staged a walkout from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly ahead of the floor test for the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, alleging that the business of the House was conducted in violation of the Constitutional norms.
The opposition party alleged that it would take up the issue with Governor BS Koshyari. The BJP also objected to replacing party’s Kalidas Kolambkar as the pro tem speaker with NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil, saying that such a thing happened for the first time in the history of India as the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance scared of losing floor test under a regular Speaker.
A special session of the Legislative Assembly was held here Saturday. However, the BJP MLAs walked out of House after Walse Patil ordered head count on motion of confidence.
“Business is being transacted in the House in violation of the Constitution. The session itself is not in line with the rules. Since the national anthem had been played after the last session, it had ended sine die,” BJP’s legislature unit leader Devendra Fadnavis told reporters.
“Summons was required to be issued through Governor to convene a new session. But that was not to be the case,” he alleged.
Fadnavis also charged that the oath-taking ceremony of Thackeray and his six ministers, too, was not in line with the rules. “Someone took Balasaheb Thackeray’s name, someone took names of (Congress chief) Sonia (Gandhi) ji and (NCP president Sharad) Pawar Saheb’s name. The oath has to be taken as mentioned in the pro forma,” he added.
On the floor test being conducted on the pro tem Speaker’s watch, Fadnavis said it was done so as the government is scared of losing the trust vote under a regular speaker.
“They were afraid that their government will collapse if regular Speaker is there…That is why we staged a walk out. We are going to write to the Governor saying the business was not transacted in line with the Constitution,” he added.
In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the BJP is the single largest party with 105 MLAs, followed by the Shiv Sena (56 MLAs), the NCP (54 MLAs) and the Congress (44 MLAs).
Raecting to the incident, the NCP Saturday accused the BJP of running away from the House after the opposition party staged a walkout before the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government faced a floor test.
The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance government passed the floor test with 169 votes in favour. The BJP’s 105 MLAs walked out before head count began in the 288-member House.
BJP MLAs objected to convening of the session and also NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil’s appointment as pro-tem Speaker in place of BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar before walking out.
The NCP’s chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said Walse Patil was appointed as pro-tem Speaker with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s consent. The session too was convened after Koshyari’s approval, he said.
“They wanted some excuse to run away, that’s why all this (ruckus). Devendra ji (BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis) should take lessons from (senior BJP leader Eknath) Khadse on how an opposition leader should work,” Malik said.
NCP MP Supriya Sule too said that the BJP ran away from floor test. “We are absolutely democratic. We will not stifle their (opposition’s) voice. For us, the battle is not personal. We will win their hearts with love,” she said.
“Maharashtra never saw vindictive approach. Our government will not work in a vindictive manner…They (the BJP) ran away when the floor test was on,” Sule said.
Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan said Fadnavis should have welcomed his successor Uddhav Thackeray with open heart. “But instead he raised minor technical issues. This was not right,” Chavan said.
PTI