MP special session begins today as Oppn stays away

Convened with an idea of building a political consensus on developmental issues,Madhya Pradesh Assembly’s special session will begin on Tuesday on an unusual note: without the main Opposition parties and the Deputy Speaker.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) met on Monday but did not budge from its earlier decision to boycott the four-day session,holding that it’s “unconstitutional” and won’t serve the party’s purpose of raising people’s issues since the question hour,the zero hour and various motions are not part of the agenda. The CLP meet also decided that Deputy Speaker Harvansh Singh will boycott the proceedings, Congress’s Deputy Leader in the House Choudhary Rakesh Singh said.

Congress legislators will sit on the stairs in the Assembly premises,shout slogans,and hold a ‘symposium’ in the evening at Iqbal Maidan on issues like corruption,shortage of drinking water and electricity and malnutrition.

The ruling BJP made efforts to convince the Opposition to withdraw its boycott call. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan,who was instrumental in convening the session to decide the roadmap to make Madhya Pradesh “a golden state”,wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi,leader of Opposition Jamuna Devi and MPCC chief Suresh Pachauri requesting them to convince the party’s legislators to attend the session.