Shiv Sena's Sanjay Gavande picked up Speaker's mace, as Deputy Speaker Vasant Purke was in the chair.
The opposition today disrupted the proceedings in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, demanding installation of a statue of Shivaji off Mumbai coast as per the original plans.
Displaying fake swords and wearing pagdis (traditional Maharashtrian headgear), MLAs trooped into the well and climbed onto speaker's podium shouting "Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji".
Shiv Sena's Sanjay Gavande picked up Speaker's mace as well, as Deputy Speaker Vasant Purke was in the chair.
Immediately thereafter, Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil took over, and repeatedly directed the opposition MLAs to go back to their seats, but he was not heeded.
The situation forced him to adjourn the house for one hour.
Yesterday, members of Sena-BJP and other opposition parties had criticised the Congress-NCP government for failing to procure environmental clearances for the statue, proposed to be put up in the sea (on the lines of Statue of Liberty in USA), as per its election promise.
The opposition took exception to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's statement that Government was looking for an alternative offshore site as Union Ministry of Environment and Forests was yet to accord the required permissions.
However, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan later stated in the house yesterday that the Centre had not denied permission, and he was pursuing the matter with the concerned minister.
After the house reassembled, Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse and Shiv Sena's Subhash Desai said the Chief Minister was going to respond to a debate on the statue issue in the Legislative Council, but was not responding in Assembly. "This is not done," Khadse said.
"How can the chief minister respond to the debate in the upper house before replying here. We had raised the issue first yesterday, and the CM had agreed to make a detailed statement on Monday, giving update on the process for securing environmental permissions," Khadse said.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshvardhan Patil said the chief minister would reply to the debate in the upper house on Monday only after making a statement in the Assembly.
The opposition members said they would not allow the house to function till the CM made a statement. Deputy Speaker Vasant Purke, who was in the chair, later adjourned the house for the day after the introduction of bills.
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