MUMBAI: Maharashtra legislative assembly on Wednesday suspended 19 members of opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for unruly behaviour in and outside the house on Saturday (March 18) during the presentation of the State budget in the house.
As soon as the house met for a special seating at 10am on Wednesday, Minister for parliamentary affairs Girish Bapat moved the motion to suspend the members till December 31, 2017 starting Wednesday. The motion was adopted through a voice vote.
Opposition tried to raise objections to the motion and demanded that all members of opposition need to have been suspended as all of them participated in the demonstrations. After realizing that the objection would not be heard, leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said that the opposition would boycott the proceedings of the house till the suspension is revoked. A handful of opposition leaders then staged a walkout.
Former ministers and senior NCP leaders Bhaskar Jadhav and Jitendra Awahad and senior Congress leader Vijay Vadettiwar are among the 19 suspended members. These members are charged with disrupting presentation of the budget by shouting slogans, furling banners, singing bhajans in the house and burning copies of the budget in the premises of the house.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had expressed deep displeasure over the scene during the budget presentation.
The motion adopted today prevents the suspended members from entering the assembly premises accusing their behaviour of bringing shame to the house.