Political heat in the Maharashtra assembly rose on Thursday as a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Jayant Patil was suspended from the assembly for the rest of the winter session after he made derogatory remarks against Speaker Rahul Narvekar.
The action came after an angry exchange between the NCP MLA and the speaker of the assembly. After the speaker denied the opposition chance to speak, Jayant Patil expressed anger and said Narvekar should stop “such shameless behavior.”
Later, after a meeting at the office of the speaker, Parliamentary affairs minister Chandrakant Patil presented a proposal in the state assembly to suspend Patil and the resolution was voted for by a majority.
The opposition in the Maharashtra assembly also staged a walkout on Thursday over the alleged phone tapping case against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla. The leaders alleged that they are not being allowed to discuss the matter in the house.
Congress leader Nana Patole raised the issue after claiming that he is one of the leaders whose phone was tapped.
Two cases are registered against the IPS officer in Pune and Mumbai. A case was registered at Bundgarden police station in Pune in February 2022 under section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act when the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government was in power in Maharashtra.
A court in Pune asked the police to investigate the alleged phone tapping further after they filed a closure report citing a lack of evidence.
The opposition attacked Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (holds home department) questioning the need of filing the closure report.
Patole requested a discussion on the matter which was denied by the speaker who said that the request of the Congress MLA came after the deadline and he could raise the issue with the Privilege Committee of the House.
(With inputs from PTI)
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