Fearing govt. tumble our MLAs suspended

Opposition parties boycotted the proceedings of the assembly to protest against the government’s decision to suspend legislators. Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan has said that Fadnavis government suspended 10 legislators as it was worried about its own stability.  The government on Wednesday had suspended 9 Congress legislators and 10 NCP legislators. Even Leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil criticised the government’s decision to suspend legislators. He has decided to skip the assembly session until the government withdraws its decision. The opposition parties boycotted the proceedings of the assembly to protest against the government’s decision. Prithviraj Chavan said, “There was a possibility of Shiv Sena MLAs and opposition parties voting against the government which might have led to its downfall. The government wanted to avert such scenario while passing the budget hence it had taken this step.” Meanwhile Girish Bapat had passed a resolution pertaining to the suspension of 19 legislators from the assembly till December 31, 2017. The list of suspended legislators includes Jitendra Ahwad, Bhaskar Jadhav, and Abdul Sattar. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said, “The government has taken this decision in haste and it is a mockery of democracy. Through this step the government is only trying to suppress the voice of opposition. Since last two weeks, opposition leaders have been urging the government to waive farm loans. However the government has turned a blind eye towards this issue.” “The government is not bothered about the hardships faced by farmers who are ending their lives due to debt burden. However, we will continue to protest until the government waives off farmer’s loan. We are fighting for their rights,” he added. “The government was afraid that even Shiv Sena MLAs would have voted against it over the issue of farm loan waiver. Hence to save the government, our MLAs were suspended,” alleged Jayant Patil of the NCP. The opposition parties had disrupted the assembly session when Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had presented the annual budget on Saturday. They also had burned the copies of the budget. Despite several requests by the Speaker to stop ruckus and remove banners from inside the House, the opposition members continued to raise slogans through the budget speech. On the other hand, BJP’s alliance partner Shiv Sena expressed its displeasure over the suspension of legislators. Sena urged BJP to revoke the suspension. Shiv Sena leaders Diwakar Raote, Subash Desai, Ramdas Kadam, Sunil Prabhu had met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to press for their demand for withdrawing suspension of legislators. Sena also said that the government has taken a wrong decision to suspend law makers. In 2011 the Democratic Front government had suspended 9 legislators of BJP and Shiv Sena for disrupting the assembly session. The budget session of the assembly ends on 7 April.