Embarrassing start for winter session as House adjourned for lack of quorum

The winter session of the state legislature on Monday got off to an embarrassing start for the ruling party with Speaker K B Koliwad adjourning the Legislative Assembly briefly for want of quorum.

As soon as Koliwad entered the House on the opening day of the winter session, he adjourned the House saying, "It is unfortunate that there are no sufficient members. I adjourn the House till there is quorum."

As per rules and procedures of the Assembly, at least one tenth (23) of the 224 members should be present for proceeding with official business.

Koliwad's decision took the treasury benches by surprise, much to the amusement of the Opposition.

"The Speaker has a lot of anger against the government," BJP member S Suresh Kumar said, perhaps hinting at the state government cutting grants for the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Vidhana Soudha from the proposed Rs 27 crore submitted by the legislature secretariat to Rs 10 crore.

"He has a lot of anger against someone,"JD(S) member YSV Datta said.  

Energy Minister D K Shivakumar wondered aloud why the Speaker had not checked that necessary number of MLAs were present before switching off the quorum bell.

The House, however, met a little later after the quorum requirement was met but the attendance continued to be poor.