In a stormy start to the four-day Gujarat Assembly session, all Opposition MLAs present in the House were today suspended for two days and evicted from the House following unruly scenes, after which the Congress decided to boycott rest of the session.
At the start of the session today, Congress members in the Assembly, under the leadership of Shankarsinh Vaghela, demanded suspension of the Question Hour under rule no. 108, for discussion on flood like situation in the state.
Congress chief whip Balvantsinh Rajput raised the demand saying instead of Question Hour, the House should discuss the prevailing flood like situation that has arisen due to heavy rains.
Speaker Vaju Vala rejected the demand saying that he had no power to suspend the Question Hour.
This led to Congress members shouting slogans against the government and Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and they also displayed placards and banners.
Later, they rushed to the well of the House while shouting slogans targeting Modi, who was present in the House, and on other issues like "crop insurance to farmers".
Amidst the din, finance minister Nitin Patel moved a motion to name and suspend the Congress MLAs and one NCP MLA (who were present in the House) for a day, excluding Vaghela.
The Speaker then suspended them.
This resulted in more aggressive behaviour by the Opposition in the House, after which Patel again moved a motion to suspend all the Congress legislators, including Vaghela, and one NCP MLA for two days.
The motion was passed after which the Speaker suspended all the Opposition MLAs present in the House for two days.
House Marshall's had to lift the agitating Congress MLAs out of the House.
"As they have suspended us, we have decided to boycott the rest of the session. What is the use of going to House when matters related to problems faced by the people cannot be raised," Vaghela said after coming out of the House.
The Opposition in Gujarat Assembly comprises of 57 Congress members, two of NCP and one of Gujarat Parivartan Party.
