The second day of Jharkhand Assembly's Budget session on Monday was disrupted, with Opposition BJP MLAs demanding their Legislature Party leader Babulal Marandi be announced Leader of the Opposition (LoP) of the House.
Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato, who assured the protesting opposition lawmakers, adjourned the House twice in the morning session before suspending the proceedings for the day shortly post lunch, after taking important business of the House amid the din.
Saffron party legislators had also protested on the issues on Friday, the opening day of the month-long budget session.
Like on the previous occasion, Marandi sat 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 received a thumping majority in the assembly polls in November-December. The LoP seat remained vacant.
"Justice will be definitely done. Justice has a process and it will be done," the Speaker said.
His repeated requests to the opposition members to go back to their seats were ignored as the BJP MLAs trooped to the well of the House, holding placards that read "Do Justice" and "Stop Murder of Democracy" in support of their demand for early announcement of LoP.
They also raises slogans in support of Marandi.
"Notification for LoP has not yet been announced. We are without a captain. Let the announcement of LoP be made at the earliest," BJP MLA Bhanu Pratap Sahi said, drawing the attention of the Speaker.
The opposition MLAs went back to their seats when the Speaker said the leader of the House would like to speak.
But, the opposition members, dissatisfied with the brief remarks of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, rushed to the Well shouting slogans.
Amid the din, the Speaker announced AJSU Party president Sudesh Mahto as the party's Legislature Party leader.
Marandi was elected BJP-LP leader on February 24 and the saffron had given a letter to the office of the Speaker in his favour the same day.
Marandi, had on February 17 merged his Jharkhand Vikas Party (Prajatantrik-JVM-P) with the saffron party in the presence of former BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
He returned to the party 14 years after leaving it in 2006 following differences with the leadership. Marandi was named as the first chief minister of Jharkhand by the BJP in 2000 after it was carved out of Bihar during former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee time.
BJP's number has swelled to 26 in the Jharkhand Assembly with Marandi's arrival. The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD has a combined strength of 47 in the 81-member House.
Opposition members Anant Kumar Ojha, Biranchi Narayan, former ministers Amar Kumar Bauri and Randhir Singh and several others continued raising slogans, demanding an early decision on LoP.
Amid the din, the third supplementary budget of Rs 1216.94 crore was passed through voice vote.
The Jharkhand Economic Survey, 2019-20 was also tabled by the government.
BJP MLAs Biranchi Narayan and Anant Kumar Ojha told reporters that the protest would continue "till Justice is done".
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