BJP stages walkout in Maha Assembly before floor test

The BJP on Saturday staged a walkout from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly ahead of the floor test for the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, alleging that the business of the House was conducted in violation of the Constitutional norms.

The opposition party alleged that it would take up the issue with Governor BS Koshyari.

The BJP also objected to replacing party's Kalidas Kolambkar as the pro tem speaker with NCP's Dilip Walse Patil, saying that such a thing happened for the first time in the history of India as the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance scared of losing floor test under a regular Speaker.

A special session of the Legislative Assembly was held here on Saturday. However, the BJP MLAs walked out of House after Walse Patil ordered headcount on the motion of confidence.

"Business is being transacted in the House in violation of the Constitution. The session itself is not in line with the rules. Since the national anthem had been played after the last session, it had ended sine die," BJP's legislature unit leader Devendra Fadnavis told reporters.

"Summons was required to be issued through Governor to convene a new session. But that was not to be the case," he alleged.

Fadnavis also charged that the oath-taking ceremony of Thackeray and his six ministers, too, was not in line with the rules.

"Someone took Balasaheb Thackeray's name, someone took names of (Congress chief) Sonia (Gandhi) ji and (NCP president Sharad) Pawar Saheb's name. The oath has to be taken as mentioned in the pro forma," he added.

On the floor test being conducted on the pro tem Speaker's watch, Fadnavis said it was done so as the government is scared of losing the trust vote under a regular speaker.

"They were afraid that their government will collapse if regular Speaker is there...That is why we staged a walkout. We are going to write to the Governor saying the business was not transacted in line with the Constitution," he added.

In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the BJP is the single-largest party with 105 MLAs, followed by the Shiv Sena (56 MLAs), the NCP (54 MLAs) and the Congress (44 MLAs).