l earning from the bitter experience in the past, the cautious ruling party is not in a mood to follow tradition of the Gujarat legislative Assembly to give Deputy Speaker’s post to the Opposition party.
History goes back to 1997 revolt of Shankersinh Vaghela against then BJP Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. Chandubhai Dabhi, a Congress MlA was given the post of Deputy Speaker. As luck would have it, the BJP-nominated Speaker Harishchandra Patel was ill and Dabhi was given the charge. According to sources in the Gujarat Assembly, Dabhi’s controversial decision in the House helped Vaghela to topple the Keshubhai Government.
However, when the BJP again won the election in 1998 under Keshubhai Patel, Deputy Speaker’s post was given to Gujarati film superstar Upendra Trivedi, who was elected on the BJP ticket. Till 2002 he remained as Deputy Speaker and by the time current Chief Minister Narendra Modi had already replaced Keshubhai Patel.
Now, after a gap of nearly 11 years, the Gujarat Assembly got an elected Deputy Speaker. Mangubhai Patel, tribal leader and former Forest Minister was elected as Deputy Speaker amid protest from the Congress that had fielded young MlA Shailesh Parmar who won in the last Assembly election from Dani limada Assembly constituency of Ahmedabad.
Patel, an MlA from Gandevi in South Gujarat, will sit beside the leader of Opposition. The BJP has absolute majority in the House. In the State legislative Assembly of 182 elected members, the BJP has 119 MlAs, Congress 57, Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) 2, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 2 and one member each from the JD (U) and Independent.
However, the Congress had demanded to give the Deputy Speaker’s post to its member as per the tradition of Gujarat legislative Assembly. leader of Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela argued that the traditionally appointment of Deputy Speaker is done unanimously in the Gujarat Assembly. Generally the ruling party gives support to the candidate of the main Opposition party. “In the past being the ruling party, the Congress had given the post to the Opposition party candidates,” said Vaghela.
Talking to The Pioneer, BJP chief whip Pankaj Desai told that ruling parties in as many as 18 States are having posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Of these, 10 States are being ruled by the Congress, said Desai adding that looking to the fact Congress’s demand was not appropriate.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the newly appointed Deputy Speaker for the 13th State Assembly. Modi being the leader of the House accompanied Patel along with Finance Minister Nitin Patel, Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava to the honorable chair.