Guwahati, Feb 11 The last Budget session of the Assam Assembly ahead of the April-May elections, got off to a tempestuous start on Thursday, with the Opposition MLAs displaying placards over various issues and trooping into the well of the House, forcing Governor Jagdish Mukhi to cut short his customary speech.
The Opposition Congress and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) legislators began shouting slogans against the "misgovernance of the BJP-led government including corruptions" soon after the Governor started reading his speech on the opening day of the three-day Budget session.
The agitated lawmakers rushed to the well of the House and continued their slogans protesting against various issues including "deteriorating law and order situation" in the poll-bound state.
Amid the noisy scenes, the Mukhi left the House after reading only a few pages of the 94-page written speech.
Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is likely to place the vote-on-accounts in the House for the first few months of the 2021-22 financial year on Friday.
Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami later invited all the members of the house to the customary tea party, but the Congress and the AIUDF boycotted the event protesting the Speaker's decision of stripping of the status of the Leader of the Opposition from Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia "in excuse of lack of strength of members".
With the crucial Assembly elections approaching, hectic political activity already started in the northeastern state.
The ruling BJP government has already announced to continue with its alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and to forge a coalition with the new ally United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) after discarding present ally Bodo Peoples' Front (BPF).
The key Opposition Congress also formed a "Mahagathbandhan" (grand alliance) with three Left parties the CPI-M, the CPI, the CPI-ML as well as the AIUDF and the Anchalik Gana Morcha, regional parties having a political base among the Muslims and indigenous people respectively.In the third grouping two major regional parties the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the Raijor Dal (RD) announced they would fight the ensuing polls together, leaving the other two combinations wary. Both the AJP and the RD are offshoots of the violent agitations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019.
Former All Assam Students' Union (AASU) leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi, recently floated the AJP, while with the jailed peasant leader Akhil Gogoi is the supremo of Raijor Dal.
Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry are expected in April-May.
( With inputs from IANS )
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