Shivraj Singh says assembly melee is unfortunate

Bhopal, Mar 9 (UNI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today described today's assault on SP legislator Sunilam by ruling BJP MLAs within the assembly and the subsequent chaos as ''unfortunate.'' ''I condemn the behaviour of the opposition members. The ruling party legislators are not at fault as they interfered to prevent an untoward incident as the Congress MLAs were approaching the leader of the house,'' he told reporters in the assembly premises, adding that such an occurence was the first of its kind in the state's history.

Dr Sunilam, Mr Ramnivas Rawat and Mr Satyadev Katare (both Cong) were today suspended for the rest of the assembly's ongoing budget session for staging a pro-farmer demonstration.

''The government is serious about debating any issue,'' the chief minister assured.

The resolution for the suspension was moved by Power Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and passed by a voice vote amid slogan-shouting by the opposition soon after the house reassembled following a brief adjournment immediately after question hour in the wake of Dr Sunilam being assaulted in the well by BJP members while he was demonstrating holding a bunch of corn.

Following the ugly episode, the assembly was adjourned for ten minutes. The Chief Minister and others intervened to avoid a clash.

The assembly was also briefly adjourned after the suspension and then for a third time until 1430 hours.

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