150 BJP MLAs sit on dharna against Yogi government

Over 150 Bharatiya Janata Party legislators sat on dharna against the Yogi government on Tuesday in the assembly even as the speaker had adjourned the house for the day. The MLAs charged the government for “harassment” of its own party MLA Nand Kishore Gujjar, who represents Loni constituency in Ghaziabad district. They said the demonstration was to express their solidarity with a distressed colleague.

The move led the party redfaced and several senior ministers were rushed to hold the dialogue with the agitating members and convince them to end the dharna but none of them could succeed for hours. The incident was dubbed as "revolt" in Yogi government and jokes like "Yogi govt loses majority" were cracked in political circles.

The ensuing chaos provided the fodder to opposition. Over 50 Samajwadi Party MLAs quickly joined the BJP cohort in the protest, which further embarrassed the party and the government as they are already struggling to defend themselves on the law and order front due to the recent gangrape-murder cases. The MLAs ended their demonstration only after an assurance by the government that the Ghaziabad district magistrate and superintendent of police will be called to present themselves before a BJP lawmakers committee to sort out the issue involving a party MLA from the area.

When asked whether the party will take any disciplinary action of these MLAs, BJP leaders declined to comment but indicated that any action was unlikely.

Earlier on Tuesday, the BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gujjar embarrassed his own party on Tuesday in the state assembly when he stood up and said that he was being harassed by the government.

Gujjar wanted to speak against police atrocities during zero hour but parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna asked him to sit down. Gujjar in his 29 November letter to the CM had claimed that his life was in threat at the expense of “corrupt” party colleagues and the only way to save him is to give life sentence. He also claimed that the government and police officials in Ghaziabad had ignored his complaints.