The Congress flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Assembly Speaker on Thursday suspended 11 MLAs of the main Opposition Congress for a day after they staged a walkout.
The Opposition party's legislators wanted to ask some short-notice questions on the second day of the three-day monsoon session, but Speaker Shankar Chaudhary rejected the demand.
The Congress legislators then staged a walkout in protest.
Soon thereafter, the speaker suspended all of them for a day for shouting slogans and displaying placards in the House.
Congress' current strength in the assembly is 12, but party MLA Jignesh Mevani was absent on Thursday.
Earlier, Congress Legislature Party leader Amit Chavda and others displayed placards with slogans such as "give justice to Rajkot fire victims", "curb drugs menace", "take action against land mafia", "water supply scandal in Navsari".
Chavda claimed that party MLAs had submitted 12 short-notice questions to the assembly secretariat before the monsoon session started, but none of these questions were selected for discussion.
"The two short-notice questions listed for discussion today were of BJP MLAs....We were not even informed why our questions were dropped. We want the BJP government and its ministers to give us an explanation," he said when the speaker sought to know the party's grievance.
Senior Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar claimed that a question asked by party legislator Gulabsinh Chauhan about a controversial sale of agricultural land in Dahod was rejected by the minister at the last moment.
The speaker told the Opposition party that short-notice questions are selected for discussion only after the concerned minister consents to it. Ministers can not be forced to answer a question, he added.
Minister Balvantsinh Rajput clarified that the issue raised by Chauhan was sub-judice, and it was not right to discuss an issue which is before a court.
Not satisfied with the explanation, Chavda and other Congress MLAs started shouting slogans against the government, displayed placards, and walked out of the House.
After they left, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rushikesh Patel urged the Speaker to suspend all 11 Congress MLAs for their conduct despite repeated requests by the speaker to maintain decorum.
The proposal to suspend Congress MLAs for the remainder of the day was approved by a majority vote. Four Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs did not give their consent.
The sessions are slated to conclude on Friday.