Three Congress MLAs, who were not present in the House when the entire Opposition was suspended for the rest of the session on Wednesday, attended the assembly on Thursday.
Three Congress MLAs, who were not present in the House when the entire Opposition was suspended for the rest of the session on Wednesday, attended the assembly on Thursday, much to the chagrin of the ruling BJP.
The BJP members were expecting vacant Opposition benches in the House, but were surprised to find Congress MLA from Bhadran, Rajendrasinh Parmar, occupying his seat. The chief minister and other ministers too had puzzled looks on their faces on seeing Parmar.
The Congress MLA, however, gestured to the BJP MLAs to tell them that he was not present in the House yesterday, and hence was not among the suspended Opposition MLAs.
Later, as the House convened, Speaker Ganpat Vasava was also surprised to find Parmar in the House. He spoke with assembly secretary DM Patel, who sent a note to Parmar. The MLA clarified his status in the note, which was followed by the Speaker giving a nod to him.
Parmar occupied the lone seat on the Opposition benches, but a few minutes later, two more Congress MLAs - Paranjayadityasinhji Parmar and Jodhaji Thakor - arrived in the House and took their seats, leading to a flutter among the BJP MLAs.
While the BJP MLAs recovered from the shock, the three Congress MLAs not only remained seated in the House, but also raised a number of questions during Question Hour. They also participated in the discussion on The Gujarat Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss of Property) Bill, 2012.
Presence of Congress MLAs in the House was not a planned move. Iqbal Patel, chief whip of the Congress party, said, “This was not planned. It was decided this morning that they would attend the House and represent the Opposition.”
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