Chhattisgarh: Minister, BJP MLA face off over reservation bills in state Assembly

An altercation broke out between a minister and a BJP MLA over two bills related to reservation tabled in the Chhattisgarh legislative Assembly on Friday.The quarrel took place between Minister Shivkumar Dahariya and BJP MLA Ajay Chandrakar. The total reservation in the state would go up to 76 per cent after the bill gets passed in the Assembly.

An altercation broke out between a minister and a BJP MLA over two bills related to reservation tabled in the Chhattisgarh legislative Assembly on Friday.

The quarrel took place between Minister Shivkumar Dahariya and BJP MLA Ajay Chandrakar. However, some MLAs intervened and pacified them.

After Speaker Charandas Mahant adjourned the proceedings for five minutes amid uproar in the House, Chandrakar and Dahariya stepped into the well and had a minor quarrel.

Earlier, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tabled two bills related to reservation for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Caste, Other Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government jobs and admission in educational institutions in the House.

Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel, BJP MLAs Brijmohan Agarwal and Ajay Chandrakar, questioned how the Assembly can enact an Act related to reservation when a similar issue is sub-judice in the Supreme Court.

Citing the bypoll at the Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved Bhanupratappur Assembly seat scheduled on December 5, BJP members asked the Speaker whether a discussion was held with the Election Commission before introducing such a bill.

The move is just to appease tribal voters in the bypoll, Agrawal claimed.

Suddenly, Dahariya made a comment which was not audible due to the noise in the House, but MLAs Agrawal and Sharma reacted sharply to it.

Amid the uproar, the speaker adjourned the proceedings for five minutes and the face-off occurred.

A two-day special session of the state Assembly was convened to get the two bills related to reservation for different categories passed.

According to government officials, a provision of 32 per cent quota has been made for the Scheduled Tribes (ST), 27 per cent for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 13 per cent for Scheduled Castes (SC) and four per cent for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in the bills. The total reservation in the state would go up to 76 per cent after the bill gets passed in the Assembly.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)