News Analysis India

Tag: Vidhan Sabha

  • Maratha quota: Special session of Maharashtra Assembly to commence today, Maratha quota likely on agenda

    The Maharashtra government will hold a special Vidhan Sabha session for one day on Tuesday to hold discussion on the Maratha reservation issue.

    Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stressed on Friday that reservation to Marathas will be given according to the terms of the law after presenting the report in during the special assembly session called for February 20.

    “The survey has been conducted on nearly 2-2.5 crore people… Keeping in mind that the OBC community is not left behind in the process, the government will present the report to the cabinet committee. On February 20, we have called a special session of the assembly, after which the Maratha reservation will be given according to the terms of the law…,” CM Shinde said.The decision to hold the session was taken at the weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

    “The cabinet meeting has given its nod to convene a one-day special session of the legislature on Tuesday, February 20, to discuss the various demands of the Maratha community,” a note issued by the Chief Minister’s office stated.

    The decision to convene a special session was prompted by Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil, who is on a hunger strike at Antarwali Saarati village in Jalna district.After the Maha Vikas Aghadi meeting, Congress president Nana Patole said that the Maharashtra Assembly session would commence on Monday, adding that the meeting was being held to form a strategy for the session. “The Maharashtra Assembly session commences tomorrow. The system is that they should call the opposition for BAC and discuss the proceedings of the House. However, the BJP government in the state does not want to follow the constitutional process. So, we came together to form a strategy for the session,” Patole told ANI.

    Meanwhile, the political scenario of Maharashtra is fluid as Sharad Pawar lost his party name and symbol.

    Veteran politician Sharad Pawar said on Saturday the Election Commission’s decision to recognise the group led by his nephew Ajit Pawar as the ‘real’ Nationalist Congress Party was “not in accordance with law.”

    Sharad Pawar moved the Supreme Court, challenging the decision of the ECI to officially recognise the Ajit Pawar faction as the real NCP and the use of party symbols.

    The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the interim order by the Election Commission of India (ECI) that allowed veteran leader Sharad Pawar to use ‘Nationalist Congress Party–Sharad Chandra Pawar’ would continue till further orders.

    On February 6, the poll panel, while applying the test of majority in the legislative wing, ruled that Ajit Pawar’s faction was the ‘real’ NCP and permitted the faction to use the ‘clock’ symbol for the party.

    In its order, the Election Commission noted that the total number of NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra State Assembly stood at 81, and out of this, Ajit Pawar submitted affidavits of 57 MLAs in his support, while Sharad Pawar had only 28 affidavits.

    Hence, the poll panel concluded that the Ajit Pawar faction enjoyed the majority support of the legislators and could lay claim to being the NCP. (ANI)

    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)

  • Winter session of MP Vidhan Sabha postponed by manipulating actual COVID-19 facts, alleges Congress

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: The opposition Congress has written to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Pro Tem Speaker, for moving breach of privilege motion against three senior health department officers, accusing them of manipulating and concealing actual facts about COVID-19 pandemic, just to get the Vidhan Sabha’s three-day winter session postponed last month.

    The winter session (December 28-30, 2020) was postponed on December 27 evening following an all-party meeting chaired by Vidhan Sabha’s Pro Tem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma, where the additional chief secretary (ACS-Health) Mohd. Suleman had made a detailed presentation about the alarming situation of COVID-19 pandemic situation in Bhopal, claiming that many staff of Vidhan Sabha and the MLA Rest House had tested COVID-19 positive.

    The ACS-Health’s presentation painted a dangerous picture of COVID-19 pandemic in Bhopal, played an important role in the three-day winter session of the State Assembly being postponed just a few hours before it was to start.

    The eight-page letter addressed to the Assembly Speaker was moved by Leader of Opposition and state Congress chief Kamal Nath on Saturday evening and has signatures of six other Congress MLAs, including ex-ministers Dr Govind Singh, PC Sharma, Umang Singar, Sajjan Verma, ex-Speaker NP Prajapati and first-time MLA Pravin Pathak.

    The breach of privilege motion has been sought against ACS (Health) Mohd Suleman, Commissioner (Health Services) Sanjay Goyal and Bhopal district chief medical and health officer Dr Prabhakar Tiwari and others for concealing and manipulating actual facts, just to conspire for postponing the session on COVID-19 pandemic grounds.

    One of the signatory Congress MLAs Dr Govind Singh (who was the parliamentary affairs minister in erstwhile Kamal Nath government) was the lone legislator, who during the December 27 all-party meeting had vehemently opposed the move to postpone the three-day session over COVID-19 pandemic.

    At the meet, Singh had said when farmers conclave of over 10,000 people is being organized by ruling BJP in various districts of the state, why can’t the Vidhan Sabha session of three days be held, particularly when the session in adjoining Chhattisgarh is being convened despite the pandemic.

    “We’ve got detailed evidence with us which strongly suggests that the entire details about a large number of Vidhan Sabha staff who were shown to have tested COVID-19 positive, was fake. The session (December 28-30, 2020) was postponed by fudging the numbers, just to save the government from being cornered by the opposition on various burning issues,” Congress MLA from Bhopal South West seat and former MP law minister PC Sharma said on Saturday.

    At the meeting, Mohammad Suleman had reported that the COVID-19 situation in Bhopal and Indore still being worrying, despite falling count of positive cases in other parts of the state. He had also told that out of the 271 COVID-19 tests carried out in Vidhan Sabha premises ahead of the scheduled session, eight were found positive, while out of the 281 tests conducted at the MLA Rest House, 67 staff have tested positive, which means a 23% positivity rate. This was above 10.2% — average positivity across Bhopal at that time.

    “The people who were shown to be positive wasn’t Vidhan Sabha staff, but those working at the MLAs Rest House. Also, we’ve come to know many of those shown positive were not actually COVID-19 positive. A big fraud has been committed, owing to which we’ve sought to bring a breach of privilege motion against all concerned health department officers,” ex-MP law minister PC Sharma said on Saturday.

    Reacting to the Congress legislature party writing to the Pro Team Speaker for moving breach of privilege motion, state BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari said, “Congress is making false allegations, as the winter session of Vidhan Sabha was postponed following consensus at the all party meeting on December 27, 2020.”

  • Amit Shah will begin a two-day visit in West Bengal from Saturday

    Though the dates of the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal have not been announced yet, but before that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is busy preparing the electoral atmosphere in the state. In this sequence, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will begin his two-day visit on Saturday. Former state minister and TMC leader Suvendu Adhikari is likely to join the BJP during Shah’s visit.

    According to sources, the Home Minister is expected to visit nearby temples and have lunch with the locals. On Saturday, he would go to a farmer’s house and would have lunch on Sunday at the Baul singer’s house. Keeping an eye on the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections, the BJP is vigorously pursuing its campaign in the state. Central ministers, a deputy CM and central leaders are stationed there and assigning six to seven Lok Sabha constituencies to each leader.