Opposition Congress today boycotted Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's budget speech in the House demanding her reply over the "lathicharge" on protesting Congress activists last week in which PCC chief Sachin Pilot and MLA Ashok Chandna were allegedly injured.
The Congress members wanted a reply from Raje before the budget presentation which was not accepted by Speaker Kailash Meghwal following which they announced the boycott.
Raje presented her budget in the absence of Congress legislators.
When Raje was presenting the budget inside the House, the Congress members were staging a sit in outside the Assembly in protest of the government's "apathy" towards their demand.
As soon as the House assembled for the day, NPP MLA Kirodi Lal Meena requested the Speaker to resolve the deadlock between the Congress and BJP members on the issue of suspension of nine (8 Congress and one Independent) MLAs.
The nine MLAs were suspended from the rest of the budget session on March 3 for disrupting the House proceedings and not obeying the ruling of the Speaker while raising the issue (of lathicharge on Youth Congress members) in the House just before the Chief Minister's reply on the Motion of Thanks to the address of the Governor on March 3.
Senior Congress legislator Pradhyumn Singh said the incident of lathicharge on the Congress members while they were protesting peacefully outside the Assembly was unfortunate and the Chief Minister should give reply on this.
He demanded a high-level inquiry and positive attitude towards the suspended MLAs. When Congress raised the issue in the House, the Speaker got angry, he said, adding that the matter could have been settled that day only.
He said if the CM did not give a reply, Congress MLAs will have no option but to walk out of the House during the presentation of the budget which will be unfortunate.
Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi also demanded a reply from the chief minister.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore said the government had proposed to set up a committee to probe the matter on that day, but Congress continued disruption and did not accept it.
Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria reiterated he did not find any incident like lathicharge in the video footage and said that he was ready to be punished if any policeman was found guilty.
Speaker Kailash Meghwal suggested both the sides to sit together to discuss the matter and to find a way, and asked the Opposition Congress members to listen to the budget speech of the chief minister but the Leader of Opposition announced to boycott after which the chief minister gave her budget speech.
After the boycott, the Congress members went outside the Assembly and sat on a sit in near the entrance gate, Congress whip Govind Dotasara told reporters.
