The monsoon session of the Maharashtra Assembly witnessed a ruckus on the day it commenced, as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs abused and manhandled the speaker-in-chair Bhaskar Jadhav on Monday, 5 July.
Twelve MLAs have been suspended by the House and the Assembly session was also adjourned following the ruckus. Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said that the incident has been captured on CCTV, reported ANI.
BJP member and Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis dismissed the alleged chaos, calling it 'false'.
The government created the story of the incident and suspended our 12 MLAs. Our MLAs didn't abuse the Speaker in Chair. There were some heated arguments but our senior member Ashish Shelar on behalf of all MLAs apologised to Speaker in the Chair Bhaskar Jadhav," he said, adding that later the government came up with the plan to suspend BJP MLAs in order to reduce the party's numbers in the House.
Chaos ensued as BJP leaders, who are set to underline the issue of Other Backward Castes' (OBCs) reservations in this session, alleged Jadhav of not giving them enough time to speak. Visuals of leaders storming into Jadhav's office have emerged online.