New Delhi: Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Friday said that 20-25 MLAs will join the BJP, if the opposition's no-confidence motion against the Assembly Speaker is tabled, news agency ANI reported.
This comes a day after a no-confidence motion was filed against Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the former ruling alliance in Maharashtra, between the Congress, Shiv Sena (led by Uddhav Thackeray), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The MLAs presented the motion, alleging that the Speaker had denied the Opposition members permission to speak in the House.
According to the members of the MVA, the no-confidence motion against Speaker Narvekar was signed by 39 MLAs.
The letter was also handed over to the Legislative Secretary Rajendra Bhagwat by MLAs Sunil Kedar, Sunil Prabhu, Suresh Varpudkar and Anil Patil.
Downplaying the Opposition’s move, Bawankule said that the stand taken by the opposition shows its 'double-standards'.
However, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, Ajit Pawar, said that he was not aware of the no-confidence motion and added that he would have signed the no-confidence motion had he known about it.
“I am not aware of a no-confidence motion against the speaker. Today, at 9 am I went to the assembly and now I am coming out at 12 pm. As far as my knowledge is concerned, the no-confidence motion against the speaker can’t be brought till one year. If I was aware of this motion, then my sign would have been there. I have no information about this,” Pawar said, news agency ANI quoted Pawar as saying.
It is to be noted that earlier on December 22, senior NCP leader Jayant Patil was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly for the rest of the winter session for his remarks against Speaker Rahul Narvekar.