Raipur, July 29: In an unprecedented move, the ruling party members, except two, today staged a walk out in the Chhattisgarh legislative assembly when it took up for discussion a no-confidence motion against the Ajit Jogi ministry. They retaliated against the opposition walk out when the chief minister replied to a similar motion in the last session.

When deputy leader of the opposition (BJP) Mahesh Tiwari initiated the debate on the motion, congress member Ganesh Shankar Bajpayee rose and said "in the last session when the Chief Minister stood to reply to their no-confidence motion, BJP members walked out without listening to him".

"This time we are not ready to listen to opposition and are staging a walkout," Bajpayee said. All congress members, except parliamentary affairs minister Rabindra Choubey and chief whip Ramlal Bharadwaj, went out of the house. Jogi had left the house before the motion could be taken up.
However, strongly protesting his absence, senior BJP legislator Brij Mohan Agrawal said it was unconstitutional that the leader of the house and his council of ministers were absent when the no-confidence motion against them was being taken up for discussion.

It was a disrespect to the constitution and the house, Agrawal and other members said and urged the speaker to direct the Chief Minister to be present in the house.

Speaker Rajendra Prasad Shukla said no-confidence motion was an important business hence the treasury bench members should be present and directed Tiwari to start the discussion.
Meanwhile, Choubey said that he was present in the house on behalf of the government to reply to all the points to be raised by the opposition and then the deputy opposition leader started his speech.

Bureau Report