Maharashtra Assembly Speaker suspends 12 BJP MLAs for one year over unruly behaviour

MUMBAI: In a major development that is likely to have strong political ramifications, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker on Monday suspended 12 BJP MLAs for one year for allegedly creating a ruckus inside the House.

According to reports, 12 BJP MLAs were disqualified for allegedly abusing Bhaskar Jadhav, the Speaker-in-Chair, while the Monsoon Session of the state assembly was underway.

According to sources,  the Uddhav Thackray-led MVA government accused the 12 BJP MLAs of "misbehaving" with presiding officer Bhaskar Jadhav in the Speaker's chamber. 

The motion to suspend the BJP MLAs was moved by state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab and it passed by a voice vote.

The 12 BJP MLAS who were suspended are - Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Parag Alavani, Harish Pimpale, Yogesh Sagar, Jay Kumar Rawat, Narayan kuche, Ram Satpute and Bunty Bhangdia.

Parab said during the period of suspension, the 12 legislators will not be allowed to enter the Legislature premises in Mumbai and Nagpur.

However, the former chief minister and the Leader of Opposition in the assembly, Devendra Fadnavis has denied any wrongdoing by the BJP legislators.

Fadnavis also termed the allegations made against the 12 BJP MLAs as "false" and strongly condemned their suspension from the state assembly.

The Leader of the Opposition was reportedly present during the ruckus inside the assembly. however, he still insisted that the BJP MLAs did nothing wrong.

"These are false allegations. A story is being created… no one from the BJP abused the Speaker,'' Fadnavis told the media. He warned that the opposition would boycott the House proceedings.

"For OBC (Other backward Castes) reservations, we are ready to sacrifice more than 12 MLAs," he added, referring to one of the key issues that his party is set to flag during this session.

Fadnavis said the BJP members had not abused the presiding officer. "It was Shiv Sena MLAs who used abusive words. I brought our MLAs out of the Speaker's chamber," the leader of opposition said.

Ashish Shelar apologised and the matter ended, the former CM said, claiming that what Jadhav said was a "one-sided" account. It emerged that the BJP legislators were demanding reservation for the OBCs (Other backward Castes) reservations and resorted to sloganeering while the proceedings inside the assembly were underway.

Today is the first day of the Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra Assembly. The two-day Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra Assembly got off to a stormy start with Fadnavis targeting the state government over an MPSC aspirant's suicide and the short duration of the session.

The BJP leader demanded that House members be allowed to use all legislative tools to highlight various issues and all questions submitted to be answered.