Nagpur Winter Session: BJP, Shiv Sena storm the well of the house

A day after the government filed four more offences in irrigation scams in a bid to check the opposition, the Nationalist Congress Party got even with the BJP, by not allowing it to table a financial demand that will provide for a farm loan waiver. Left with no option, the BJP and Sena chose the unprecedented way. They staged a protest in the council and stormed the well of the house. They accused NCP and Congress of playing truant and walked out.

Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil

Unlike the lower house, the ruling party doesn't have the majority needed to push proposals. NCP, in association with Congress and allied parties, stalled the tabling of supplementary demands. They had created a ruckus yesterday and they unleashed chaos on BJP and Sena on Wednesday as well.

This session's supplementary demands include R16,000 crore for welfare schemes for farmers such as the much-demanded loan waiver. Leader of the council and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil, and parliamentary affairs minister Girish Bapat, said they would complain to the governor.

"The opposition is misusing its majority. They are stalling relief to distressed farmers," Patil told media persons. Leaders familiar with the matter said the governor wasn't empowered to do anything in this regard.

"The opposition may have reasons to stall the house, but tradition says that the government should discuss such matters with opposition leaders and find a solution," said a former Congress minister. On the other hand, the Assembly worked fine, albeit after some disruptions earlier in the day. The opposition discussed the agrarian crisis at length, taking the government to task. The ruling parties dismissed the allegations.

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