Gandhinagar: Gujarat Assembly Speaker suspended all Congress MLAs present in the House on Wednesday, for a day, except the Leader of Opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela, after the opposition protested against an alleged "insult" to their leader by a minister.
Leader of opposition Vaghela walked out of the House, protesting against suspension of Congress MLAs, after saying that the Congress would launch a "non-co-operation movement" in the House, from tomorrow.
Later, Vaghela also told reporters that Congress party workers would burn effigies of Gujarat power minister Saurabh Patel and another minister Babu Bokhiria, all over the state tomorrow.
The chain of events began after Vaghela intervened and asked a question about increase in the electricity generation capacity during the last ten years by government-owned entities and private companies, when Gujarat power minister Saurabh Patel was speaking during a discussion on energy and petrochemicals.
This infuriated Patel, who told Gujarat Assembly Speaker Vaju Vala, "What if he (Vaghela) is the Leader of Opposition? Why is he allowed to interfere when I am speaking. I have not interfered when Opposition members were speaking".
Congress members demanded an apology from the minister, after calling Patel`s comments as an "insult" to the Leader of Opposition.
"I am an elected representative of the people. The post of the Leader of Opposition has not been given to me as alms or favour," Vaghela said.
The Speaker promised Congress members that he would check the records to find out if Patel had indeed used derogatory language against the Leader of Opposition and delete it from the records of the House, if necessary.
