Four days after they created ruckus in the state assembly during the presentation of the budget, the speaker of the rashtra assembly on Wednesday suspended 19 legislators from opposition benches for nine months. They have been banned from even entering the premises of the House till December 31.
Opposition leaders alleged that the action was taken by the ruling side to avoid defeat over a cut motion which requires voting.
The suspended MLAs included Vijay Wadettivar, Bhaskar Jadhav,Abdul Sattar, Amit Zanak, Amar Kale and Avdhoot Tatkare — all from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
On Saturday, the suspended lawmakers had entered into the well of the lower house and chanted slogans, demanding a loan waiver for farmers when the budget was being presented. Besides sloganeering, the MLAs waived banners and sang bhajans for about two hours. The copies of the budget were also burnt outside the legislature.
In the suspension motion moved by the government on Wednesday, parliamentary affairs minister Girish Bapat said the opposition continued their unruly behaviour despite repeated warnings by the speaker.
Similar action is expected in the legislative council too.
Opposition leaders Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Jayant Patil alleged that the action was taken because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was afraid of a defeat on the floor of the assembly as the opposition parties were planning a cut motion on farm loan waiver during the discussion on budget.
“The government was afraid that even Shiv Sena MLAs would have voted against it over the issue of farm loan waiver. Hence to save the government, our MLAs were suspended,”alleged Jayant Patil of the NCP. The government has to resign if it is defeated during the voting on any motion in the assembly.
