BJP stages walkout from HP Assembly over ED case against

Opposition BJP disrupted the Himachal Pradesh Assembly for the fourth consecutive day today and staged a walkout after the Speaker did not allow a discussion on developments in the ED case against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
As soon as the House assembled, the BJP members sought to raise the issue again but Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail disallowed any discussion, maintaining that the matter was "sub judice".
As the BJP members continued to press the demand and created a ruckus, the Speaker adjourned the House for 20 minutes but the opposition was unrelenting and raised the demand after the House met again.

The BJP finally staged a walkout when the Speaker refused to accept their demand.
BJP MLAs led by Leader of Opposition P K Dhumal made frequent reference to yesterday's Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting and questioned "if all is well" within the Congress, why the legislators had to re-affirm faith in the leadership of the chief minister.
If the entire Congress Legislature party (CLP) was united and solidly behind the Chief Minister then why the government was running away from discussion on the ED issue? Dhumal asked.

Some other BJP legislators including Suresh Bhardwaj, Rajiv Bindal and Ravinder Ravi too pressed for a debate even as the Speaker proceeded with the Question Hour.

Heated exchanges were witnessed between the ruling party and opposition when Transport Minister G S Bali alleged that the Centre had destabilised the Uttrakhand government but there was no scope of repeating the same in Himachal Pradesh as not even a single Congress MLA would desert the party.
The Speaker expunged the remarks after Dhumal said that the Uttarakhand matter was in court.
Dhumal said the Congress seems to have forgotten that its own leader Indira Gandhi had dismissed various state governments on 55 different occasions.
"On December 15, 1992 the BJP government in HP was dismissed along with those of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (in the aftermath of the Babri mosque demolition) despite there being no communal incident in Himachal," said Dhumal.

When BJP member, Suresh Bhardwaj said there was a "crisis of confidence" in Congress and the Virbhadra Singh government was facing a major trouble, Transport Minister G S Bali and Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri entered into heated arguments with him. The BJP members started shouting slogans and walked out of the House.
However, they returned to the House after the Question Hour was over.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur slammed the BJP for acting in the most "undemocratic manner".
"Neither do they have faith in democracy nor in the ruling of the Speaker, which they are challenging," he said.