BJP, Congress seek to end Gujarat assembly impasse

Both the parties in Gujarat assembly, BJP and Congress agreed on compromising formula on Tuesday over the issues of removal of speaker and suspension of opposition MLAs. The Congress pushed for debate on a no-confidence motion against the speaker and with the intervention of the CM Vijay Rupani, both the parties agreed for compromise formula and leaders from both the sides met outside the house but the meeting remained unresolved.

The opposition leader Paresh Dhanani raised the point of order after question hour and said that the motion should have come for debate in the house much before the day as the tenure of 14 days for consideration of the business advisory council on the motion was over on March 14. He also insisted that as per the rule of Gujarat assembly, the motion should come for debate as soon as possible.

The parliamentary affairs minister Pradipsinh Jadeja said, “We are ready for the debate over the issue and not running away. But this is unfortunate that the grace of chair of the speaker of assembly would not be maintained. Congress MLAs indulged in body blow in house but speaker adopted a generous approach for the opposition and let them to speak without limit of time on issues criticising the government.”

Senior MLA from Congress Punja Vansh countered Jadeja’s statement in the house and said, “It is the prerogative of the speaker who should speak in the house and who should not.” When Vansh criticised ruling of speaker suspending three Congress MLAs for blow in the house, speaker stopped him.

The chief minister Vijay Rupani intervened in the issue and said, “It will be better if the no-confidence motion is withdrawn on mutual consent as that has never happened in past. Senior members from both sides can meet and decide on the same. The issue of suspension of MLAs also can be discussed there.”

The deputy leader of opposition Shailesh Parmar said, “The ruling party should think over the suspension of three MLAs of Congress with open hearts and should make the quantum of punishment lighter.”

Senior minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama defended speaker’s rule on suspension of MLAs and said that if speaker’s ruling against some members hurt others, his chair should not be incriminated for that as speaker never act against members out of vengeance. The deputy CM Nitin Patel also insisted for talks between both the parties and appealed the speaker to give his ruling later to that. However, the speaker rejected the point of order raised by opposition leader by saying that it was not necessary to hold debate on no confidence motion immediately after 14 days period. The leaders from both the parties had held a meeting at chief whip’s office but no consensus was achieved. 

DY CM SPEAKS

• The deputy CM Nitin Patel also insisted for talks between both the parties and appealed the speaker to give his ruling later to that. The speaker also rejected the point of order raised by opposition leader.