Oppn slams Maha govt for ‘trust’ motion on Speaker

Congress-NCP say incident a ‘blot’ on democracy and an attempt to suppress dissent

Hitting out at the Maharashtra government and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for getting the motion of confidence in Speaker passed in the Assembly, Opposition CongressNCP on Friday said the incident was a “blot” on the democracy and an attempt to suppress dissent.

Leaders of the opposition Congress and NCP met Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao here in the evening and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention into the matter.

Outmanoeuvring the opposition, which had given a notice of no-confidence against Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Fadnavis on Friday moved a motion of confidence in the Chair, which the lower house passed by a voice vote.

The opposition had submitted a notice of no-confidence against the speaker on March 5 alleging that he was conducting the proceedings in a biased manner.

In the memorandum given to the governor, the opposition parties said Fadnavis' trust vote in favour of Bagde had no connection with their no-confidence notice against the latter.

The delegation comprised Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, former CM Prithviraj Chavan, NCP leaders Jayant Patil, Dilip Walse Patil and others.

They said Fadnavis had moved a trust vote when the issue was not even listed on the day’s agenda, which violated the legislature norms.

“When the opposition members objected, Fadnavis gave an example of a trust vote in the council of ministers moved by the then chief minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh. This was nothing but misleading the House.

“The example given by Fadnavis was regarding the motion of confidence in the council of ministers and it had nothing to do with the no confidence notice submitted by us against the speaker,” they said in the memorandum.

Talking to reporters after meeting the governor, Vikhe Patil said they urged him to issue necessary directives to the government.

Jayant Patil said the opposition would press for a debate on its no confidence notice. “Opposition members are not allowed to raise issues of public interest,” he alleged.

Prithviraj Chavan said the CM is not elected by the Legislative Assembly. “It is the Speaker who is elected by the House and the members can bring no-confidence against him. When Dilip Walse Patil was the speaker, he had read out the notice of no-confidence against himself in the House.”

“We will seek a debate on the notice before the session ends,” he said.

The ongoing budget session of the state Legislature will end on March 28.

Earlier, after the House was adjourned for the day, the opposition party leader held a press conference, where they slammed the government and the chief minister saying that the episode was a blot on the democracy.

Walse Patil said, “Since we don’t have numbers in the House, it was clear that the no-trust vote against the Speaker would not have passed.

“Since we don’t have numbers in the House, it was clear that the no-trust vote against the Speaker would not have passed. But we expected a debate on improving House.” the functioning of the

- Dilip Walse Patil

NCP leader