Politics

UP Assembly winter session: 70 BJP MLAs protest against functioning of Yogi government

Updated : December 18, 2019 08:15 AM IST

Trouble has started brewing for Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh with BJP legislators now coming out openly with their resentment against its functioning.

After BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gujjar was not allowed to speak in the Assembly about the misbehaviour of officials in his constituency (Loni in Ghaziabad), about 70 BJP MLAs came out in his support.

Though the Speaker hastily adjourned the assembly after Samajwadi Party MLAs came out in support of Gujjar, the BJP MLAs held a meeting in the lobby area on Tuesday evening.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna tried to pacify the agitated legislators but the latter were unrelenting.

The legislators were then called into the Speaker's chamber for detailed talks.

"We have told the ministers that the District Magistrate and SSP of Ghaziabad must be summoned to the assembly and asked to apologise for misbehaving with Gujjar. We also demand the transfer of these officials who do not know how to respect lawmakers," said a BJP MLA.

Several BJP MLAs told the ministers how they were being insulted and humiliated by bureaucrats and this had become the hallmark of Yogi government.

"Even the security guards deployed at Vidhan Bhawan misbehave with us. The ministers do not listen to us and the officials in our constituencies follow suit. This is the result of ruling party being in a 'brutal majority'," said another legislator.

The legislators said that they were being taken for granted by the Yogi government and their grievances were not being addressed even though they have been informing the party leaders about the state of affairs.

They said that their rights as a legislator were now being infringed upon because they were not being allowed to raise issues in the assembly.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was not in Lucknow when these developments took place. He was campaigning in Jharkhand.

The MLAs said that they would not budge until the erring officials in Ghaziabad were called and made to apologise.

However, later in the evening, the legislators agreed to wait till Wednesday and warned that they would resume their campaign if action was not taken.

Meanwhile, the BJP has set up a committee of senior MLAs that will summon the District Magistrate and the SSP on Wednesday and resolve the issue.