Mumbai (The Hindu): As the protest over farmer loan waiver entered the second day on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, sensing the opposition’s upper hand, chose to raise slogans against the government.

On Wednesday, the Shiv Sena MLAs had joined the sloganeering with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) inside and outside the Assembly.

On Thursday, the Congress and the NCP raised the issue even before the question hour was called. The Sena MLAs too joined in and claimed that only party president Uddhav Thackeray will ensure loan waiver.

Two adjournments

As the House restarted after two adjournments of 10 minutes and 30 minutes, BJP MLAs joined the opposition and the Sena MLAs. Except the ministers, all the MLAs — from the opposition and the ruling parties — were agitating in the well. As chaos continued, presiding officer Yogesh Sagar adjourned the House for the day. “The fact is the State government does not want to declare loan waiver. They are busy in politicising it. We want the government to announce loan waiver in this budget,” said NCP leader and former deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

BJP MLA Kisan Kathore claimed that loan waiver is the brainchild of his party and the BJP has never said no to the move. “But we will do it for the benefit of people and not for the benefit of banks, owned by the leaders of the Congress and the NCP. We will do it at the right time.”

“They should first understand that loan waiver in any sector ultimately benefits people and not always the banks. We have seen it in the industry sector. Some days ago, the Centre had released a list of industries with outstanding loans. Hence, such allegations have no base,” said Mr. Pawar.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil slammed the BJP for the protest. “They are running the government. They have all the decision-making powers. How can they even protest for something which they can easily announce?”