Budget session of Gujarat Assembly: Congress, BJP spar in Assembly as Mevani says CM not holding regular meet of SC/ST Act cell

Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Manisha Vakil contested Mevani’s claims with the dates when such meetings were convened since 2019, including the last meeting convened on December 4,2025.  She said that the meetings were convened as scheduled and went on to add that Mevani himself was not present at the meeting.

Mevani countered her saying though the committee includes Dalit and tribal MLAs and MPs, it is not compulsory for them to attend such meetings. “But, as per the law, it is indeed compulsory for the CM to conduct the meeting,” he said.

At this point, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi intervened, accusing the Congress MLA of raising the issue for “publicity”. “From now on we will also release the list of all the members who have attended and those who were absent in these meetings to make people aware of the real situation,” Sanghavi stated.

This led to a war of words between Sanghavi and Mevani. Other BJP and Congress MLAs also joined the issue.

Speaker Shankar Chaudhary intervened and asked Mevani and other MLAs to take their seats.

Later, Cabinet Minister for Protocol Jitubhai Vaghani raised a point of order, terming Mevani’s behaviour ‘bullying’. Vaghani alleged that despite the Speaker’s clear instructions and repeated requests, Mevani did not abide by rules of the House and called it an insult to the House and the Speaker’s Chair. He demanded that care should be taken to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.

Taking the MLA’s behaviour seriously, the Speaker reprimanded Mevani. The Speaker said that it is highly inappropriate to not follow the instructions and urged him to maintain the dignity of the House in future.