On the last day of the Monsoon session of the state assembly, the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in Chhattisgarh on Saturday survived a no-trust motion moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The motion was defeated by voice vote shortly after 1 am following a 13-hour debate.
The Congress has 71 members in the 90-member assembly, while the BJP has 13 MLAs in the House.
The stormy debate
The debate, which began shortly after noon on Friday, saw the BJP presenting a 109-point "chargesheet" against the Baghel government and accusing it of corruption and failure to fulfil poll promises.
The House which witnessed a stormy debate began shortly after noon on Friday. The BJP presented a 109-point "chargesheet" against the Baghel government. The Opposition members targeted the Congress government over alleged scams, non-fulfilment of its poll promises and “deteriorating” law and order situation.
The treasury bench rejected the charges claiming that the Opposition failed to come up with any concrete issues and its chargesheet lacks facts.
'Opposition charge-sheet lacks facts'
Reacting to the fiery debate on a no-confidence motion in the Chhattisgarh assembly, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel asserted that the opposition charge-sheet lacks facts. He said that in a democracy the opposition has the "rights to express no-trust" on the government while the ruling party has the opportunity to highlight their achievements. "The opposition has leveled 109 allegations and did not mention any fact," the Chief Minister said.
"Five years back when Singh Deo had brought the no-trust, he mentioned facts," the CM said adding that the opposition lacks people to mention facts. Further attacking the BJP, Baghel said that the largest party of the world, as they claim, did not have a person to mention facts in a chargesheet.
Shortly before CM concluded his speech, the BJP members started sloganeering against the government claiming that it failed to give replies to the opposition’s allegations and walked out from the House.
Slamming the Centre, Baghel said the Enforcement Directorate has been given enormous powers which is not in the interest of the country. “I strongly oppose the move to give powers to ED to probe GST-related cases,” he added.
'Baghel govt had turned deaf and dumb'
Initiating the debate, BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal hit out at the Congress and said the no-trust motion has been brought as this government had turned "deaf and dumb" and become a "murderer of democracy". He said the atrocities committed by the Baghel government against youths had surpassed those committed by the British rulers.
He referred to the induction of Mohan Markam into the Baghel-led cabinet after replacing him as Congress' Chhattisgarh unit chief and removal of minister Premsai Singh Tekam from the cabinet.
(With agencies input)
