Government may revoke suspension order of 19 opposition MLAs

Mumbai: The BJP-led state government is likely to go back from its aggressive stand on expulsion of Congress and NCP’s 19 MLAs. On Saturday, parliamentary affairs minister Girish Bapat indicated the government’s meltdown. But real reason behind this going back comes after opposition parties state wide Sangharsh Yatra. Key members from BJP have alerted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that if this Yatra touched the chords of farmers, then opposition will get upper hand on ground and BJP will have to face the backlash.

Assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade had suspended 10 NCP and nine Congress MLAs on Wednesday for creating ruckus in the assembly during the budget speech. From then, opposition parties have boycotted the entire proceedings of the house calling the government ‘dictatorial and anti-farmer’. The assembly speaker tried twice to get the opposition members in the house by calling group leaders meeting. On Friday, CM Fadnavis assured of ‘rethinking the decision’ only if opposition participate in proceedings. But the opposition members rejected the proposal with the condition of ‘revoke expulsion first, only then we will participate in house.’

“Our Yatra is for farmer loan waiver issue and not for revoking expulsion of farmers. Government may try to divert the issue but we will reach to farmers and expose government’s policies,” Mr Vikhe said. The opposition leaders on March 24 had declared of observing a statewide ‘Sangharsha Yatra’ against the BJP government’s policies. The yatra will be held in the middle of the budget session from March 29 to April 5. The opposition netas are likely to rake the farmer loan issue during the yatra and corner the BJP government.

Anticipating a backlash, some senior BJP leaders have allegedly convinced chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to rethink on the 19 MLA suspension decision. The government has indicated that it is ready to revoke the expulsion on March 29. On the same day opposition parties will hit the streets for the ‘Sangharsh Yatra’ in Chandrapur and Vidarbha. Opposition Leader Radhakrishna Patil rejected government’s attempt.