Mumbai: The Opposition will bring a motion of no confidence against Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde for allegedly favouring the government, and to protest the manner in which he passed the vote of thanks on the Governor’s address.
Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao’s speech to a joint session of both Houses on the first day of the budget session courted controversy after it was found to not have been translated into Marathi.
On Monday, Mr. Bagde passed the vote of thanks without a reply from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and didn’t allow the Opposition to speak on the issue. Addressing a press conference later in the day, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said, “The Speaker must understand that he doesn’t belong to a particular political party. It’s his responsibility to ensure the Opposition gets an opportunity to speak. We have decided to bring a no-confidence motion against him.”
The discussion on vote of thanks began on Thursday, with one MLA from each party speaking on the motion. On Monday, senior Oppostion leaders were scheduled to discuss the Governor’s speech, which was to be followed by the CM’s reply.
Claiming that 24 Congress and NCP MLAs and the PWP’s Ganpatrao Deshmukh have signed the notice, Mr. Vikhe-Patil added, “Mr. Bagde has flouted constitutional norms to allow the government to run away from the debate.” Senior NCP leader and former Deputy CM Ajit Pawar accused the government of trying to “destroy the principles of parliamentary democracy”. “The CM should have replied on points raised by MLAs last Thursday, while initiating the discussion on the vote of thanks.”
Mr. Pawar said the motion of no confidence has to be admitted in 14 days, and as per the precedent, the Speaker doesn’t preside over the proceedings till it is disposed of.
Senior Congress leader and former CM Prithviraj Chavan said Opposition members wanted to speak on the motion, thanking the Governor and taking the government to task for its failures. “But the Speaker allowed the government to get away by passing the motion without debate. We wanted answers from the government on the farm crisis, unemployment and other issues.”
Mr. Chavan also criticised the Speaker for allowing Industries Minister Subhash Desai to make a statement on the Nanar refinery issue.
The NCP’s Bhaskar Jadhav said he would move a breach of privilege motion against Mr. Desai.
Suspend Munde: BJP
Ruling party MLAs demanded the suspension of Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde, based on an audio clip in which two people discuss bribing him to not ask questions. Amid the ruckus, Mr. Fadnavis proposed a probe by a joint committee comprising the Assembly Speaker and Leader of Opposition and the Council Chairperson and Leader of the House. Mr. Pawar accepted the CM’s suggestion and requested him to proceed with other House matters.
Mr. Pawar said at the press conference, “When the CM was speaking, the Speaker didn’t ask MLAs from the treasury benches, who were in the well raising slogans against Dhananjay Munde, a member of the Upper House, to go back to their seats.” — With PTI inputs
