10 Congress MLAs suspended for raising slogans over fake govt offices row

Besides Chavda and Mevani, other suspended MLAs on Tuesday included Tushar Chaudhary, Geniben Thakor, Gulabsinh Chauhan, Amrutji Thakor, Anant Patel, Imran Khedawala, Kanti Kharadi and Arvind Ladani.

The development came during the Question Hour in the first sitting when a starred question raised by Congress MLA Tushar Chaudhary, who is a tribal, was taken up for discussion. Chaudhary sought to know if it was “correct that a fake government office under the control of the Tribal Development Department was erected in Chhota Udepur district”‘ and that government grants were received by it. He also asked when the fake office was detected and sought the details of the action taken in the matter.

In a written reply to the question, Dindor said it was not correct that a fake office was set up under the department.

In his supplementary remarks during the discussion of the question, Chaudhary stated, “I do not agree with the answer given by the minister. In Chhota Udepur, around five fake offices have been caught and were given permission for around 93 administrative works and an amount of Rs 21.5 crore has been paid from the Tribal Development Department. A fake office can succeed only when it gets support from the real one.”

Dindor informed that the fake office in Chhota Udepur’s Bodeli did not wield any authority under the Tribal Development Department and as soon as it was detected, an FIR was registered and five people were arrested.

He added that the accused had managed to receive around Rs 21 crore (in government grants) through the fake office. The minister said nobody had complained about the fake office but it was detected by the government and swift action was taken.

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, the minister replied 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 seven 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, Opposition leaders 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. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Hemant Ahir joined the Congress legislators in the 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.

Congress has a total of 15 MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly. Five MLAs — Arjun Modhwadia, Shailesh Parmar, Dinesh Thakor, Vimal Chudasama, and Kirit Patel — were absent and not among those suspended. Parmar, Chudasama, and Patel were seen in the House later.