As Speaker Adjourns House Sine Die, Congress Runs 'Assembly' Within MP Assembly

Bhopal: A day after Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker Sitasaran Sharma adjourned the House sine die sans any discussion on the no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition Congress against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, the Congress on Wednesday decided to hold its own 'janata darbar (people's court)' in the Assembly building.

Congress MLAs had on Tuesday announced to continue proceedings in Assembly in the absence of the ruling party and accordingly the opposition lawmakers reached the Assembly at 11am and sat outside the House in the Assembly building raising slogans "hisab do, hisab do".

Displaying black bands on the arms, the MLAs sat on the floor while one of the MLAs posed as the speaker with ears covered with headphones, mouth shut with a tape and eyes closed with a blindfold. The MLAs were denied permission to enter the main Assembly hall.

The Congress once again attacked speaker Sitasaran Sharma for his partisan behavior and accused him of working at the behest of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra.

Calling it ‘janata darbar’, the MLAs spoke on various problems plaguing the state.

Ichhawar MLA Shailendra Patel who comes from Sehore, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s hometown, underlined farmers’ plight saying he can’t find any farmer who is free of loans.

Several other MLAs spoke on corruption, unemployment and many other issues. Congress also used social media to telecast the proceedings.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh announced that Congress would go to the public and expose the BJP government by discussing the issues mentioned in the no trust motion which the speaker did not allow to be debated in the Assembly. The MLAs would brief the public about issues which forced the BJP government to run away from debate, he added.

Later, speaking to media, Singh refused to admit that it was a parallel Assembly and said that those issues which can’t be raised in Assembly were being discussed in the 'janata darbar'.

However, as the Congress MLAs reached the Assembly, police personnel denied media the permission to enter the premises and only backed down after stiff opposition.

AP Singh, Principal Secretary of Assembly secretariat, later denied accusations saying those not carrying Assembly passes were stopped.

The 'janata darbar' would continue till June 29 the last day of monsoon session.

Not daunted by the Congress allegations of being partisan, the Speaker termed it part of the democratic process.