RANCHI: The month-long Budget session of the Jharkhand Assembly began on Friday, with the seat of the Leader of the Opposition remaining vacant.
The BJP MLAs trooped into the well demanding Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato announce BJP’s Legislature Party leader Babulal Marandi as the LoP.
The Opposition members resumed their seats on the request of the Speaker later.
“The decision is on hold,” said a senior official with the assembly secretariat who was asked when the Speaker would decide on the LoP.
Marandi was seen sitting in the front row, which was allotted to him during a special session between January 6 and January 8 soon after the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won a thumping majority in the assembly polls in November-December.
BJP MLAs on February 24 unanimously elected Marandi as their Legislature Party leader after he merged his JVM-P with the saffron party a week ago in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A BJP legislature party delegation had also given a letter to the office of the Speaker in favour of Marandi on February 17, when he had merged his party.
The Speaker, however, called the name of senior BJP MLA C P Singh to speak on the obituary reference.
BJP’s number has swelled to 26 in Jharkhand Assembly.
Blanket ban on rallies over CAA, NPR
Looking at the violence in Jharkhand and other parts of the country, rallies related to CAA or NRC has been banned completely in Jharkhand.
Notably, pro-CAA rallies instigated clashes in Giridih on January 12, and later in Lohardaga on January 23, resulting into huge loss of government and private properties.
In Lohardaga, a group of people hurled stones on a pro-CAA rally which also resulted into violence.