Chhattisgarh assembly continued to witness pandemonium on the third consecutive day of its five-day winter session with the opposition Congress and the ruling BJP indulging in war of words on the floor of the house.
The house began its proceedings on Wednesday with the Speaker revoking the suspension of 37 Congress MLAs.
After the question hour, agriculture minister Brijmohan Agrawal demanded an apology from the state Congress president and Patan MLA Bhupesh Baghel “for insulting the speaker of assembly”.
Countering the agricultural minister, the leader of opposition TS Singh Dev said, “We accepted the ruling of speaker against the no-confidence motion against him. But is it not a democratic right of the members of the house to move a no-confidence motion against the persons holding a constitutional post? Would that individual be targeted for this act?”
Mr.Dev’s comment attracted angry response from the treasury benches with some senior ministers pressing for apology from Mr.Baghel.
Congress MLAs, including Amit Jogi and Mr.Baghel, countered the ministers’ move leading to pandemonium in the house.
The speaker Mr.Gourishankar Agrawal, however ruled that the comments made by Mr.Baghel were “undignified” and “unbecoming” for a member of the house.
The speaker also warned Mr.Baghel for his comments and ruled that the comments would stay as the part of proceedings of the house for “those comments would remind the member of his unruly behavior”.
Mr.Baghel alleged that he was not given enough opportunity to respond which again led to uproar in the house, however, the demand for adjournment motion by the opposition to discuss fake ration card issue was accepted by the speaker which resulted in the peaceful functioning of the house for the rest of the day.
