Nagpur: The Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday witnessed a major scuffle between members of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and ruling Shiv Sena, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the house for the day.
Continuing their aggressive stance, BJP members marched to the Legislature building this morning carrying flex posters printed with a ‘Saamana’ report demanding aid of Rs 25,000 per hectare to farmers hit by unseasonal rains and floods, which the Sena had made when it was in alliance with BJP.
Inside the assembly some of the members waved the posters, and at least a couple of BJP legislators rushed towards the Speaker’s podium raising slogans and demanding immediate implementation of the Sena’s earlier demand.
Speaker Nana Patole ordered them to return to their seats to continue with the house proceedings, but they refused to obey.
Just then, at least one Sena legislator rushed towards two BJP members and tried to snatch the posters from them, and the BJP and Sena legislators pushed each other leading to a huge ruckus, slogan shouting and disorder.
BJP’s Ashish Shelar and Girish Mahajan, NCP’s Jayant Patil and Sena’s Eknath Shinde rushed to the scuffling members and intervened to stop them fighting.
The Speaker adjourned the house for 30 minutes, and called both sides for counselling and the need for maintaining the decorum of the house. “Nothing like this has happened inside the house in decades. Such incidents should not be repeated”, Patole said. (IANS)
