11 Gujarat Congress MLAs suspended for disrupting meeting

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Congress MLAs on Thursday staged a walkout on day two of the monsoon session, accusing biased handling of questions in the assembly. In response, the Speaker suspended 11 Congress MLAs.

At the beginning of the session, 11 Congress MLAs disrupted the proceedings by waving placards on issues like Rajkot play zone fire, crackdown on drug menace, action against land mafia and accountability for Navsari water scandal. Speaker Shankar Chaudhary then directed the assembly sergeants to confiscate the protest papers of the Congress MLAs, triggering an uproar among the Congress MLAs and prompting them to walk out of the session.

Congress party leader Amit Chavda claimed that party members had tabled 12 short questions before the monsoon session, but none of them were selected for discussion.

When asked by Assembly Speaker Chavda to clarify the party’s grievance, he said, “There were only two short questions on the list on Thursday, both from BJP MPs. We were not even told why our questions were withdrawn. The BJP government and its ministers owe us an explanation.”

Senior Congressman Shailesh Parmar said, “A query by our legislator Gulabsinh Chauhan on a controversial sale of agricultural land in Dahod was abruptly rejected by the minister at the last moment.”

In response, the Speaker reminded the opposition that “short-term questions are only selected for discussion with the consent of the minister concerned. Ministers cannot be forced to answer a question.”

Minister Balvantsinh Rajput explained: “The issue raised by Chauhan is sub-judice and it is not appropriate to discuss matters that are currently before the court.”

Dissatisfied with the explanation, Congress leader Amit Chavda and other Congress members started shouting slogans against the government, waved placards and walked out of the House.

After their exit, all 11 Congress MLAs were suspended for their disruptive behaviour despite repeated appeals to maintain decency. Meanwhile, four Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs withheld their consent to suspend MLAs.