Zeenews Bureau
Mumbai: Despite the four-year suspension of four party MLAs, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Monday remained defiant and vowed to challenge the matter in the courts, a party official said.
"We regret this action of the house on the issue of Maharashtrian pride which we raised in the assembly today. Our lawyers shall look into the matter and the party will decide the appropriate course of action," party spokesman Shirish Parker told media persons this evening.
The Maharashtra Assembly, on the first day of the first session of the new house, unanimously approved a proposal suspending four MNS legislators for four years and banning their entry into Mumbai and Nagpur whenever the sessions are held in these cities.
The four legislators are: Shishir Shinde, Ram Kadam, who had slapped and punched Samajwadi Party member Abu Asim Azmi, Vasant Gite and Ramesh Banjle.
Reacting to the House decision, Shinde asked media persons why should they (the four MLAs) be only suspended and why their legislatorships were not cancelled.
MNS group leader Bala Nandgaonkar said that Shinde had not even taken oath as MLA and he had been placed under suspension.
He said that for all Marathi-loving people, the suspensions of the MNS legislators would instill "a sense of pride".
Nandgaonkar vowed that after Monday's developments, the party's determination to pursue the cause of Maharashtrians and Marathi-speaking people would get a further boost and support from the people.
SP activists take to streets
The assault on Samajwadi Party MLA
Abu Azmi in Maharashtra Assembly by MNS legislators today
triggered violent protest in the district, where state
transport buses were pelted with stones.
As the channels flashed images of ugly ruckus in the
House, SP activists took to the streets and pelted stones,
damaging three MSRTC buses at Bhiwandi, police said, quoting
reports reaching district headquarters here.
No one was injured in the stone pelting, they said.
A similar incident took place at Mumbra, a
minority-dominated area on Mumbai's outskirts, the police
said.
Bhiwandi, a minority-dominated powerloom town, was one
of the two seats from where Azmi was elected.
According to reports, MNS activists burnt an effigy of
Azmi, whose oath-taking in Hindi infuriated the MLAs of the
Raj Thackeray-led party, at Kalwa in the city.
The police said barring these sporadic incidents,
situation was under control.
Meanwhile, in Malegaon, Samajwadi Party activists headed
by its city President Rizwan Batterywala made unsuccessful
attempt to burn an effigy of Raj Thackeray.
Also, a state road transport corporation bus was
allegedly stone in Malegaon by SP activists.
First Published: Monday, November 09, 2009, 21:19