‘Divided’ Congressmen show chinks in Opposition party again

Friday, 20/03/2015

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=127037&boxid=57941&uid=&dat=2015-03-20

EVEN AS JAKHAR LED OPPOSITION MEMBERS TO WALK OUT OF ASSEMBLY, 3 SENIOR CONGRESS MLAS REMAINED INSIDE

Chandigarh : The ‘divided’ Congress party once again showed ‘chinks’ in the main Opposition party during the sixth day of the ongoing Budget session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha here on Thursday.

Even as Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar led the Opposition members to walk out of the Assembly in support of two independent MLAs, three senior Congress members – Lal Singh, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar and Randeep Singh Nabha – remained inside the House amidst thumping by the treasury benches.

Feeling led down, the protesting Opposition MLAs, including Jakhar, however returned to the House within a minute of walking out, followed by the Bains brothers, who attended further proceedings of the House.

It all began around 10.45 am when upset over “being disallowed from putting a supplementary to a question by the Speaker”, two ndependent MLAs – Simarjit Singh Bains and his elder brother Balwinder Singh Bains from Ludhiana – made efforts to put a supplementary on a question asked by Congress MLA Raj Kumar Verka during Question Hour.

The trouble started after Simarjit noticed that Speaker Dr Charanjit Singh Atwal called other legislator’s name. He started shouting slogans by raising his hands and even sat on the floor of the House besides his seat. Balwinder also joined him.

However, Atwal told the protesting MLA that he (Simarjit) did not stand up to put a supplementary.

“I looked thrice at you (Simarjit), but you did not stand up to put a question,” Speaker told the protesting MLA brothers.

But Simarjit rushed into the Well of the House followed by Balwinder and staged a sit-in raising slogans against the Speaker.

The Bains brothers were joined by Congress member Charanjit Singh Channi with Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar backing the independent MLAs.

After staging a noisy demonstration in the Well of the House, the Bains brothers walked out followed immediately by the Congress flock.

Though initially the Opposition members seemed undecided on whether to walk out or not as Speaker had called their MLA Raj Kumar Verka’s name to ask one of his starred questions as only couple of minutes were remaining for the Question Hour to conclude.

However, the majority in the Congress MLAs prevailed to walk out but san Lal Singh, Mofar and Nabha. This was despite that fact that none of their questions were also scheduled to come up at that point of time. Before the walkout, unpleasant exchanges were witnessed between independent MLAs and some members of treasury benches, including Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.