Ten Congress legislators, including legislative party leader Amit Chavda and Jignesh Mevani, were suspended from the Gujarat Assembly after they raised slogans over the issue of fake government offices in the state.
Besides Chavda and Mevani, the other suspended MLAs include Tushar Chaudhary, Geniben Thakor, Gulabsinh Chauhan, Amrutji Thakor, Anant Patel, Imran Khedawala, Kanti Kharadi and Arvind Ladani.
The development occurred during the Question Hour during the first sitting when a starred question raised by Congress MLA Tushar Chaudhary was taken up for discussion. Chaudhary sought to know details about a fake government office detected in Chhota Udepur district, ostensibly under the Tribal Development Department.
During the discussion that followed, Tribal Development Minister Kuber Dindor informed that the fake office in Chhota Udepur’s Bodeli did not wield any authority under the state government and as soon as it was detected, an FIR was registered and five people were arrested.
Dindor added that the accused had managed to receive around Rs 21 crore (in government grants) through the fake office.
Chaudhary then alleged that a total of five fake government offices were seen to be functioning in Chhota Udepur and the accused had collected over Rs 21 crore through them.
Congress MLA Amrutji Thakor sought to know how long the fake office mentioned by Dindor had functioned in Chhota Udepur before it was detected. To this, minister Dindor said it had been functioning since 2016-17 and the FIR was registered on October 26, 2023.
This evoked loud reactions from the Congress MLAs over the fact that the fraud had managed to remain unnoticed for eight long years. In response, Dindor said he did not wish to mention the past (during the Congress rule) when duplicate schools and ghost classes were reported in the state.
Following Dindor’s reaction, Congress MLAs – led by their legislative party leader Amit Chavda – rose from their seats and registered objection. Chavda said the minister was talking about the past even as fake offices and fake toll booths were being detected in Gujarat.
The Congress MLAs continued to raise slogans even after Speaker Shankar Chaudhary repeatedly asked them to sit down with the assurance that he would get the minister to answer their questions. However, the Opposition legislators continued their protest and some entered the Well of the House.
Naming the MLAs, the Speaker asked them to sit down, but they continued their protest and staged a walkout. After this, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rushikesh Patel moved a proposal seeking the suspension of the Congress MLAs for the rest of the day. The proposal was seconded by Industries Minister Balvantsinh Rajput, leading to the suspension of the 10 MLAs by the Speaker.
The Congress has a total of 15 MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly, five of whom were absent and hence are not among those suspended.
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