The Congress yesterday demanded the dismissal of the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra in the wake of the police firing in Mumbai in which 10 people were killed.
A high-level party delegation met Prime Minister I K Gujral, and told him to place the state Assembly in suspended animation. Led by party president Sitaram Kesri, the delegation included Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar and S B Chavan.
Gujral told the delegation that he has asked Union home minister Indrajit Gupta to visit Mumbai forthwith for an on-the-spot study of the situation and submit a report to him.
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Before meeting Gujral, Kesri met party MPs from Maharashtra, and discussed the situation in the state.
Party sources said except Chavan, all agreed that the Congress should demand the dismissal of the government. Chavan, however, felt that the issue needed to be discussed in both houses of Parliament first.
Meira Kumar, who was sent by Kesri to Mumbai to study the situation, reported that the police fired above the waist.
Besides the atrocities on dalits, the delegation members gave details of how the house of leader of the opposition in the state legislative council Chagan Bhujbal was ransacked by Shiv Sena workers.
They also submitted objectionable writings in the Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, including an editorial which allegedly justified the attack on Bhujbals house.