india

Updated: Jan 11, 2019 07:22 IST

Congress legislator Hina Kawre was chosen deputy Speaker of the state assembly through a voice vote on Thursday amid opposition protests that the election was “undemocratic and unconstitutional.”

The treasury benches put forward four resolutions proposing the name of Kawre and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a fifth proposing Jagdish Devda.

Like in Tuesday’s election to the post of Speaker, the opposition again demanded a discussion on all the five motions at the same time, a demand the Speaker, Congress’s NP Prajapati, refused to entertain. The opposition MLAs entered the Well of the House.

Amid the din, Prajapati took up the first resolution and declared Kawre elected through a voice vote and then adjourned the House indefinitely. Leader of the opposition Gopal Bhargava and former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said party legislators would meet the President to lodge a protest against what they described as the “undemocratic and unconstitutional” election of the speaker and deputy speaker.

Political observer ND Sharma said that BJP lacked unanimity. “The result is it has lost the post of deputy speaker too... it could have taken part in the discussion and showed its strength,” he said.