HP Vidhan Sabha session: Oppn walks out as ruling party members fail to arrive on time
The House was scheduled to reassemble at 2.20pm and Opposition members had reached on time, but members of the ruling party did not turn up even after 15 minutes had passed
Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly on Tuesday witnessed a walkout by the BJP legislators after ruling party members failed to turn up on time.
The Opposition members walked out soon after the House assembled following the lunch.
The House was scheduled to reassemble at 2.20pm and Opposition members had reached on time, but members of the ruling party did not turn up even after 15 minutes had passed.
As the assembly proceedings started, the Opposition staged a walkout while raising slogans.
Later, parliamentary affairs minister Harshwardhan Chauhan clarified that the government had completed 100 days in power on Tuesday and the chief minister had called a press conference, which got extended due to which the ruling party members got late.
Chauhan also said that he had informed the speaker of the Vidhan Sabha about the delay. The parliamentary affairs minister claimed that the BJP had no issue to raise against the government and was staging walkouts on one pretext or another just to stay in the limelight.
He said this had happened many times in the BJP government too, when the chief minister did not come to the House.
“Despite this, the Congress cooperated in running the House,” he added. Chauhan advised the Opposition to have a meaningful discussion in the House and sought its cooperation with the government and the assembly speaker.
BJP’s Bikram Singh Thakur accused the parliamentary affairs minister of lying. He said that no information about the press conference was given by the government. “It is the responsibility of the government to run the House and the ruling party cannot intimidate the Opposition. The government should accept its mistake,” he added.
Assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania intervened and said he would look into the matter.
Meanwhile, while talking to the media outside the House, MLA Randhir Sharma said the BJP is extending its full cooperation in the proceedings of the House, but “the government is not serious”.
He said no member of the ruling party came to the House for 15 minutes after lunch. The bell rang from the assembly secretariat, but neither the speaker nor the members of the ruling party, including the chief minister, came to the House. Only three Congress MLAs were present in the House, he claimed.