By IANS,
Raipur : Stepping up protests against the ruling Bhratiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chhattisgarh for its alleged failure to control Maoist violence, a Congress delegation Thursday met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and sought central rule in the state.
A party delegation led by state Congress president Dhanendra Sahu, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Ravindra Choubey and former chief minister Ajit Jogi met the governor at Raj Bhawan here and urged him to recommend President’s Rule in the state.
“We submitted a memorandum to the governor and requested him to recommend for President’s rule as state government is unable to handle Maoists who are staging a string of deadly attacks in the state,” Ramesh Varlyani, state Congress general secretary who was one of the members of the delegation, told IANS.
Earlier in the day, as many as 35 Congress legislators were suspended from the state assembly for shouting slogans near the speaker’s chair and disrupting the proceedings of the house. The suspension was revoked after 10 minutes.
The opposition legislators were demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Raman Singh for failing to curb Maoist violence in the state.
Those suspended included Leader of the opposition Ravindra Choubey, former chief minister Ajit Jogi and his wife Renu Jogi.
But Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik revoked his order after 10 minutes and asked the opposition members to attend the house for a debate on Maoist attack, but Congress legislators did not turn up.
Choubey told reporters later that the Congress will not allow the house to run till Raman Singh puts in his papers owning moral responsibility for the July 12 Maoist attack in Rajnandgaon district, in which 29 policemen, including the district police chief, were killed.
The Congress has been disrupting the assembly since the monsoon session began July 20. The house was adjourned July 20 and July 21 amid uproarious scenes by Congress legislators.
The BJP has termed the Congress protest over Maoist attack a “political drama”.