New Delhi: Taking an aggressive stand on the opening day of the Assembly session, Congress MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa demonstrated a coordinated floor strategy to counter the confidence motion placed on the Table of the House by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Despite the numerically negligible numbers, Congress MLAs marked their presence in the House as the CM moved the confidence motion. Of the 18 MLAs of the party, 15 were present.
Unable to proceed with the confidence motion, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan had to adjourn proceedings thrice before the Congress MLAs were named for the day.
Bajwa slammed the government for bringing the trust vote in “violation of legislative rules”.
“No rule allows a government enjoying a majority to move a confidence motion,” he said, reminding the chairman that there was no discussion on the motion during the Business Advisory Committee meeting.
State Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira and other party MLAs tried to counter the onslaught of the Treasury Bench MLAs. As the CM got up to start the discussion on the confidence motion, Bajwa did not budge and continued to lead the charge against the Treasury Bench.
Congress MLAs stormed the Well of the House raising slogans before being nominated by the Speaker. Thereafter the house was adjourned. After leaving the House, the MLAs staged a sit-in outside the assembly and held a mock session with Randhawa as the “speaker”.
