Maharashtra: Vidarbha issue rocks House, throws business out of gear

Sloganeering, tearing papers of House business and throwing them in the air in protest, and passage of Bills amidst pandemonium was the scene at the state Assembly on Monday.

The highest point of the pandemonium amidst sloganeering was when a Shiv Sena MLA, who is part of the government, took away the scepter from the presiding officer's table. He kept it back only after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis objected to it.

The uproarious scenes were over the issue of creation of a separate Vidarbha. The Assembly witnessed four successive adjournments with the last adjournment happening for the entire day. Soon after the House assembled for question hour at 11am, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP MLAs started protesting against the creation of a separate Vidarbha state. This led to the first adjournment. After House resumed, Sena MLA Prakash Abitkar said that while on one hand prime minister Narendra Modi had assured people of the state during his election rally at Dhule that his government would not commit the sin of breaking Maharashtra into pieces, on the other, BJP state unit president Raosahaeb Danve is saying that Vidarbha would be created at an appropriate time.

Fadnavis assured the House that the government would make its stand clear on this issue during the day, but the angry Opposition as well as Sena MLAs did not agree to it and the pandemonium led to a second adjournment. This resulted in not taking up any question for discussion during the question hour.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil alleged that the chief minister and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar assure the people of Vidarbha of a separate state and then take a contradictory stand in the House and mislead it. He said that it was an insult to 105 martyrs who laid down their lives for creating a united Maharashtra during the united Maharashtra agitation in 1950's.

NCP MLA Dilip Walase-Patil said that when Shiv Sena, a part of the government, was against it, the government is in minority. He demanded a referendum on the separate Vidarbha statehood demand.

While Vikhe-Patil and Walase-Patil were delivering their speeches, the MLAs were in the well of the House shouting slogans against creating of a separate Vidarbha state.

Amidst pandemonium, Fadnavis began his statement and started giving a history of the Nagpur accord of 1953 to create one state for all the Marathi-speaking people. During his speech, Sena MLA Rajesh Kshirsagar picked up the scepter. The peon tried to snatch it from him, but in vain. Seeing this the chief minister said, "It is not right, it is not right." Following this, Kshirsagar kept the scepter back on the speaker's table.

Continuing his speech, Fadnavis pointed out that Congress leaders had also assured creation of a separate Vidarbha during election rallies and challenged both Congress and NCP to make their stand clear on the statehood demand.

The House was adjourned thrice since pandemonium continued even after the chief minister's statement.

After the House resumed, Vikhe-Patil refuted Fadnavis's allegation of the Opposition politicising the issue and challenged the chief minister to bring a resolution in favour of a united Maharashtra.

The MLAs, meanwhile, kept on sloganeering in the well of the House by shouting "Akhand Maharashhtracha Vijay Aso", "Nahi Chalegi Nahi Chalegi Dadagiri Nahi Chalegi".

MLAs Amin Patel, Pratap Sarnaik, Abdul Sattar and others tore apart the papers of House business and threw them in the air in protest. A few members also hurled paper planes towards the chair.