Opposition leaders boycotts proceedings of Maharashtra legislature for not letting its leaders speak

Leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) boycotted the proceedings of both Houses of the Maharashtra legislature, and protested against the state government at the Vidhan Bhavan complex here, accusing it of not letting them speak in the Assembly and the Council.

The leaders of the opposition MVA, comprising the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray-led faction and Congress, also condemned the suspension of senior NCP leader Jayant Patil for an alleged derogatory remark against the Assembly Speaker on Thursday.

According to a report of PTI, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar, Sena (UBT) leaders Aaditya Thackeray and Bhaskar Jadhav, Congress's Balasaheb Thorat, NCP leaders Rajesh Tope, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil and others were seen sporting black ribbons to protest against the Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

They held the protest by sitting on the steps of the legislature complex. A senior Congress leader said, We are boycotting the proceedings of both the Houses to protest against the government which is not letting the members of the opposition speak in the legislature.

Aaditya Thackeray said, Unless and until the speaker gives us assurance that the opposition members will get an opportunity to speak, we will stay out. We want to raise the issues of Governor B S Koshyari's remarks against iconic personalities, CM Shinde's involvement in land allotment scam and the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue.

The opposition legislators raised slogans against the Shinde-Fadnavis government on these issues. When asked about his name being linked to the death case of Disha Salian, a former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Thackeray said it was a conspiracy to malign him.