New assembly off to a stormy start

If scenes witnessed on the first day of the 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly on Monday are anything to go by, the month-long budget session is likely to be a stormy affair.

The session began with the Opposition Congress creating ruckus in the House over atrocities against Dalits and other issues.

The day's proceedings began with the traditional address of Governor OP Kohli. However, two minutes into his address, Congress MLAs started chanting slogans criticising the government for failing to prevent atrocities against Dalits. "Dalito ne nyay aapo (Give justice to Dalits)," the Congress MLAs shouted while referring to the self-immolation case of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar, who succumbed to his burns on Friday night.

The Opposition MLAs rushed towards the Well shouting slogans asking the government to supply water for agriculture to farmers. As the sloganeering continued for a couple of minutes, Governor Kohli stopped his address, and Rajendra Trivedi, who was officiating as Speaker for the first time, adjourned the House for 45 minutes.

When the House reassembled after the break, the House paid tributes to former MLAs Uttambhai Patel, Anil Patel, Babubhai Patel, Shankarlal Patel, Vikram Patel, and Jaikumar Sanghavi, who passed away since the last sitting of the assembly.

Congress said it will corn-er the government in the Hou-se over issues such as atrocities on Dalits, farm woes, water shortage, and power crisis, among others. With 80 MLAs, including its allies, its highest tally since 1990, as compared with BJP's 100, many feel that the Congress will give a tough time to the government in the assembly.