The Maharashtra legislative Assembly on Saturday revoked the suspension of 9 of the 19 MlAs of the Congress and NCP who were suspended from the House till December 31 for disrupting the presentation of the State Budget on March 18 and burning the copies of the Budget speech in the Vidhan Bhavan premises on over the farm loan waiver issue.
The nine MlAs were: Sangram Thopate (Congress-Bhor), Narhari Jirwal (NCP-Dindoshi), Deepak Chavan (NCP-Faltan), Dattatray Bharane (NCP-Indapur), Abdul Sattar (Congress-Sillod), Avadhoot Tatkare (NCP-Srivardhan), Amit Jhanak (Congress-Risod), Vaibhav Pichad (NCP-Akole) and DP Savant (Congress-Nanded North). Informed sources in the ruling BJP said that the suspension of the remaining 10 Opposition MlAs would be revoked before the ongoing Budget session of the legislature on April 7.
It may be recalled that 19 Opposition MlAs – nine belonging to the Congress and 10 from the NCP – were on March 22 suspended from the Assembly till December 31, 2017 for creating ruckus during the presentation of the State budget and burning the copies of the budget speech in the Vidhan Bhavan preemies on Saturday last over the farm loan waiver issue.
Bapat had said in the State Assembly last week that the State government was in favour of revoking the suspension of the Opposition MlAs. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had also indicated in the State legislative Council on Friday that his government might revoke the suspension of the Opposition MlAs.
However, leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said that notwithstanding the state government’s decision to revoke the suspension of nine out of the 19 Congress and NCP MlAs, the Opposition parties would continue their ongoing “Sangarsh Yatra” demanding waiver of the farm loans in the state.
In his interaction with media during the course of “Sangarsh yatra” at Aurangabad, Vikhe-Patil said: “Under mounting pressure arising out of the fast building consensus among the people that the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation is anti-people, the state government has revoked the suspension of nine of our MlAs. But, the state government’s decision will not have any bearing on our ongoing Sangarsha Yatra over farm loan waiver. We will carry on with our yatra. Even after our yatra ends on April 4, we continue our agitation for farm loan waiver”.