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The Uttar Pradesh assembly was paralysed on the opening day of the winter session on Monday, when Bahujan Samaj Party members trained its guns on the Samajwadi Party government headed by Akhilesh Yadav.
No sooner than the zero hour commenced, BSP members led by their leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui stormed (video) into the well of the house, raised anti-government slogans and demanding the dismissal of the Akhilesh government.
The Speaker's bid to silence the protestors by ordering adjournments a couple of times did not help and finally the house was adjourned until Tuesday.
Undaunted by the bedlam that prevailed for quite sometime, the government hastily tabled the state's supplementary budget. In fact, getting the supplementary grants passed by the house is widely believed to be the government's primary objective behind convening a really brief session of five days.
While other opposition parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress too flayed the Akhilesh government for the "poor law and order situation" prevailing across the state, it was BSP which chose to take the SP regime head-on.
They raised slogans like 'sakar past, gunde mast janta trast' (government is dead, goondas on the run and people are disillusioned), 'balatkari yeh sarkar nahi chalegi' (government of rapists will not last), 'mahapurushon ka apman karne wali sarkar nahi chalegi' (the government that insults great people will not last) and 'dangaion ki sarkar barkhast karo' (dismiss the government of rioters) and demanded immediate dismissal of the government.
"This government has failed on all fronts; people are completely disillusioned, therefore it must go," said Siddiqui.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan rose to give a retort by hitting out at the previous regime under Mayawati. "How can goondas who ran the state for five years, now seek the exit of a government which had done only a few months?" he asked.
Accusing the BSP government of taking corruption to new heights, Khan said, "Each of the BSP's corrupt ministers who were guilty of large-scale corruption would be punished." And referring to two ministers who were at large ever since their involvement in illegal activities was brought to light, he warned, "They will not be able to escape the law no matter wherever they might have gone into hiding."
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav however chose to maintain studied silence.
Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded the extension of the term of the current session. "We want that the session of the house be extended so that other key issues can be debated," observed BJP leader Hukum Singh. Condemning the government for dithering over the price of sugarcane for the current crushing season, he went on to add, "we want the government to declare the State Advised Price for sugarcane without any further delay."