Gujarat Congress MLAs suspended after ruckus over Patel quota row

GANDHINAGAR: All the Congress MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly barring Opposition Leader Shankarsinh Vaghela were suspended for a day today as the house witnessed ruckus over the OBC quota agitation by Patels.

Speaker Ganpat Vasava suspended the Congress MLAs present in the House who stood up and shouted slogans against government accusing it of mis-handling the agitation. Vaghela meanwhile, remained in his seat.

After the Speaker announced his decision, the MLAs rushed to the well of the House and continued their protest.

The Speaker then ordered marshals to take them out of the House and adjourned the proceedings till recess.

Earlier, the House was adjourned thrice as Congress members shouted slogans on the issue of police atrocities during Patel community quota agitation and demanded that the House be adjourned after paying homage to those who died in the protest.

Nine people, including one policeman, died in the violence that erupted after detention of Hardik Patel, who is leading the agitation for inclusion of his community in OBC quota for reservation, on August 25.

Leader of Opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela demanded that the House should be adjourned immediately after paying homage to those who died.

Citing precedent, Vaghela said when the Godhra train burning incident took place on February 27, 2002, the then Chief Minister ( Narendra Modi) had moved adjournment motion to suspend proceedings of the House after paying homage to 59 people who died in the incident.

"Today, I want to move an adjournment motion in the House for those who have died in the police atrocities during the two-days of violence. We should be allowed to pay homage to them and later the House should adjourn," Vaghela said.

However, state minister Nitin Patel rejected the Opposition's demand.

Congress MLA from Jamangar, Raghavji Patel also raised the issue of the ongoing unrest after police lathi-charged on the Patel rally on August 25 at GMDC ground.

The direction-less state government has put Gujarat's peace in jeopardy, he said.

Patel also blamed the state government for the current situation and alleged that innocent people were mercilessly beaten by police.

When the government rejected their demand, Congress MLAs started shouting slogans like "lathi, goli ki sarkar nahi chalegi", "atankwadi sarkar nahi chalegi."

The slogan shouting by Congress members led to repeated adjournments of the House before the MLAs were suspended.