In a first, Assam Assembly holds ballot voting to decide private member’s resolution

Guwahati: For the first time Assam Assembly took to voting by ballot paper to decide the fate of a private member’s resolution brought by Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi in the House on Friday.

The resolution was defeated by nine votes. The resolution was on the irrigation system.

Out of 77 MLAs in the BJP-led alliance, the government garnered 39 votes. 30 votes were polled in favour of the resolution from 47 opposition MLAs. Earlier, Speaker Biswajit Daimary declared the resolution as defeated in a voice vote.

Opposition members including Gogoi demanded voting as they claimed that the ruling party did not have the numbers.

The House was adjourned for 10 minutes to prepare for voting. When the House assembled again, the Speaker conducted a voice vote, the opposition opposed stating that the speaker had already announced voting.

The House staff distributed ballot slips to every member, who ticked in their choices and deposited the same in the ballot box.

Congress deputy leader Rakibul Hussain appealed to the Speaker to allow the chief whip of the parties to see the votes of their MLAs according to the Anti-Defection Law.

Congress MLAs Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha and Basanta Das, who recently extended support to the BJP without leaving the grand old party, silently walked out of the House while the voting was ongoing.

30 votes are in support of Ayes, while 39 were gone to Noes. There was zero abstain.

The ruling BJP's strength in the 126-member House is 61, while its allies UPPL has seven MLAs and AGP has nine. In the opposition camp, the Congress' strength is 27, AIUDF has 15 members, BPF has three, and CPI(M) has one MLA.

Akhil Gogoi introduced a private member resolution in the House advocating for the declaration of Assam as a year-round cultivating state with a constant water supply to the fields. During the voice vote, the chorus of ‘ayes’ surpassed that of ‘noes’ indicating a majority in favour of the resolution, considering it was initiated by an opposition MLA.

Initially, the speaker declared it defeated, but subsequent uproar caused him to reconsider leading to temporary adjournment of the House for 10 minutes.

This marks a significant deviation from the norms, as it’s the first instance in decades with the Assam Assembly where an opposition-led resolution was subjected to ballot voting.

The last such occurred dates back 15 years when the Congress party led by then chief minister Tarun Gogoi faced a similar challenge during its regime.