Oppn walks out from State Legislative Council, demand Neelam Gorhe step down from Dy Chairperson post

On the first day of the monsoon session, members of Opposition parties including Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress staged walked out from the State Legislative Council, taking an aggressive stance of passing a no-confidence motion against Gorhe, saying that under the given circumstances, she cannot give justice to the constitutional position.

“Neelam Gorhe, the honorable Deputy chairperson of Maharashtra Legislative Council has switched parties. Accordingly, we have submitted a petition to remove her from the post. We have demanded in the House that those on the verge of being disqualified, and on whom there is no trust of members should not remain in the post of Deputy Speaker. This has led to a constitutional crisis in the council. Hence we demand that an urgent decision be taken on the matter,” the memorandum submitted by the MVA legislators stated.

“The request was made to the Governor that a decision be taken urgently after discussing the matter with the Advocate General,” said Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council, Ambadas Danve, after meeting the governor. Danve said they have demanded the appointment of a committee to run the work till this embarrassment is resolved.

Earlier in the day after walking out from the house, Danve had said, “Gorhe was elected to the post of Speaker of Council on behalf of Sena (UBT). Now that her primary membership of the party has been cancelled due to defection, a resolution of her disqualification has been tabled by MVA against Gorhe, as morally she cannot retain the post.”

On July 7, Gorhe, who was known to be Uddhav’s trusted close aide, joined Shinde-led Sena, saying the ruling party is heading in the right direction under Shinde’s leadership.

Currently, the post of Legislative Council’s Chairperson is lying vacant.

“Apart from the disqualification notice, we have also moved the removal notice (to step down from post). Till the time a decision is taken on the notice, she should not be on the post of deputy speaker. All MLAs have taken this decision, following which we walked out from the House,” Sena (UBT) MLA Anil Parab said.

Jayant Patil, the Shetkari Kamgar Paksh MLC, had also raised an objection over Neelam Gorhe holding the post despite having switched parties, and a disqualification notice against her.