Cong moves no-trust against Guj Speaker

Opposition Congress party submitted no-trust motion against the newly elected Speaker of Gujarat Assembly Rajendra Trivedi after the Congress MLAs were suspended by the Speaker for creating ruckus inside the House on Wednesday over the issue of GST on petroleum products.

Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani alleged that the Speaker was expected to act neutrally but unfortunately his partial approach forced his party to submit no-trust application against the Speaker before the Secretary of Gujarat Assembly.

Trivedi, who elected from Vadodara, became Speaker on the first day of Budget Session on 19th February and now within 10 days he is set to face no-trust motion. In fact the Congress legislatures staged protest outside the Speaker’s chamber and shouted slogans against the ruling BJP as well as Trivedi. 

Congress legislatures alleged that Trivedi allowed BJP Ministers and MLAs to speak but didn’t’ give enough time to Congress legislatures and independent MLA (Jignesh Mevani). “In the last few days, the Speaker repeatedly ordered to silent microphones of opposition party. Especially when Mevani wanted to speak on the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar who died after his self-immolation bid over the land issue,” claimed the Congress MLAs.

On Wednesday, Trivedi suspended around 15 Congress legislators for a day from the Assembly, after the Opposition rushed to the well of the House and shouted slogans against the ruling BJP over VAT on retail sales of fuel in the state. He suspended female legislator Asha Patel who won from Unjha assembly constituency on Congress ticket for two days for using un-parliamentary word in the House. She allegedly used the word for BJP ruled government.

The House became stormy during question hour after Congress legislator Vimal Chudasama sought details of VAT being charged on petrol and diesel by the state government and whether the government planned to reduce the taxes. In his reply, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel stated that Gujarat charges 20% VAT on fuel and went on to give a comparative tax rates in Congress-ruled states as Punjab and Karnataka, which he claimed was much higher at 28% and 30%. Reacting on Patel’s answer, Dhanani demanded a debate for an hour on the issue. However, the Speaker disagreed.