Assembly ruckus: MLAs attempt to snatch mace

Nagpur: After remaining silent while the Nanar green refinery was being discussed in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, Shiv Sena MLAs Rajan Salvi, Vaibhav Naik, Pratap Sarnaik and Sadanand Chavan, and Congress MLA Nitesh Rane — demanding the cancellation of the project — tried to snatch the Speaker’s mace in the Assembly on Wednesday. This sparked a ruckus after which proceedings were adjourned for the day. The Sena MLAs were acting on the instructions of party chief Uddhav Thackeray in the backdrop of a day-long protest by the Konkan Refinery Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti in Nagpur, which was supported by the Shiv Sena.

Nitesh Rane

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party moved an adjournment motion in the Legislative Council on Wednesday on the Nanar issue and demanded that Mr Fadnavis should clarify about the powers of industry minister Subhash Desai with regard to de-notifying or releasing land that was acquired or is under acquisition.

Mr Fadnavis had said that the Centre would set up the refinery on the state’s west coast and if Maharashtra did not agree to this, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh would.

Wednesday’s ruckus began after Mr Salvi had tried to raise a point of information on the issue, but the Speaker denied him permission as Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had given an adjournment motion on the issue.

Speaker Haribhau Bagade adjourned the proceedings of the House thrice, but the chaos showed no sign of abating. Amid in the ruckus, Mr Rane went in front of the Speaker to take away the mace. Looking at this, Mr Salvi and Mr Sarnaik climbed the podium to snatch the mace while a few chopdars (staffers) of the Speaker tried to hold them off. In the scuffle, a chair on the podium was overturned. Amid the uproar, the Speaker adjourned proceedings for the day.