In a loss of face for the Hemant Government, the entire post-lunch session of the Assembly got virtually washed out on Wednesday as the members of ruling coalition partners did not turn up to take part in a special debate on the controversial issue of auctioning sand ghats forcing the Opposition to stage a walk out.
The vanishing act of the ruling party members also resulted in postponing some important Bills scheduled to be tabled in the House.
The situation arose when some MlAs from Congress, JMM and RJD did not return to the House when it was to resume at 2 pm. Bell rang for long 45 minutes inviting the missing members while the Opposition waited for them inside. About 8-9 members from treasury benches were present that included Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Singh. Mannan Mallick and Chandrashekhar Dubey also arrived later.
This led BJP's CP Singh to consult JVM's Pradeep Yadav who called upon all the Opposition members-about 13 in number- to come out. Rajendra Singh was seen in consultation with the CM and went outside to pacify the Opposition. But the irritated members of BJP, JVM and AJSU party refused to return and shouted slogans outside against the Government blaming it for deliberately degrading the dignity of the House.
"It is very unfortunate that members of ruling parties were not present and we all waited for them. They are not interested to run the House seriously," said Yadav. Even intervention from Rajendra Singh could not break the ice who approached the aggrieved MlAs with a regret.