Opposition moves no-confidence motion against speaker

Mumbai: Claiming that speaker Haribhau Bagde has a biased approach towards Opposition members, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday moved a notice of no-confidence motion against him. 

The Opposition also stated that the motion of thanks on the governor’s address was approved without any debate, thus allowing the government “to run away from debate.”

After the Assembly was adjourned for the day, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said that 24 Congress and NCP members along with senior Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) leader Ganpatrao Deshmukh had signed the no-confidence motion notice.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Vikhe-Patil accused the speaker of trying to silence the Opposition benches. “It’s the speaker’s job to allow Opposition members to speak so that they can highlight the issues of the common man. The speaker belongs to the House and not the treasury benches. However, he was seen protecting the government,” he alleged. The Congress leader also said that Mr Bagde had flouted constitutional norms.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who was also present at the press conference, said that when the Opposition was ready for discussion on the motion for thanks to the governor for his address on Monday, Mr Bagde took it up for passage without debate and without the chief minister’s reply. “When CM was speaking, the speaker did not ask MLAs from treasury benches, who were in the well shouting slogans against Dhananjay Munde, a member of the Upper House, to go back to their seats,” Mr Pawar said.