Noisy protests by BJP in Council over Rahul's Savarkar barb

The Maharashtra Legislative Council witnessed noisy scenes on the first day of its winter session here on Monday as BJP members protested Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 'My name is not Rahul Savarkar' remark.

The opposition members also sought compensation for farmers affected due to unseasonable rains this year.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Council Pravin Yashwant Darekar sought a discussion on Rahul Gandhi's remark, terming it as an insult of the Hindutva icon V D Savarkar.

The BJP has taken strong objection to a remark made last week by the Congress leader, who rejected the saffron party's demand for an apology over his "rape in India" barb, and said his name was Rahul Gandhi, not "Rahul Savarkar", and he will never apologise for speaking the truth.

Criticising the remark, the opposition members stormed into the well of the Upper House of the legisalture and raised slogans against Gandhi while demanding an apology from him.

They also demanded compensation for farmers affected by untimely rains.

Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar asked the protesting members to go back to their seats so that the House could take up a condolence motion over the death of former legislator Shivajirao Dattaray Patil.

Later,after paying tributes to Patil, the House was adjourned for the day.

Earlier, the house proceedings began with the recitation of 'Vande Mataram' following which a motion was passed to congratulate Justice S A Bobde on his appointment as the Chief Justice of India.

Later, Nimbalkar announced the appointment of Shiv Sena's Subhash Desai as leader of the Legislative Council and Darekar as LoP.

Darekar thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP working president J P Nadda and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for giving him the opportunity to lead the party in the House.