The House saw individual skirmishes with the opposition and the one Independent MLA putting up a better show this time compared to the lackluster show in earlier sessions.
However, there was no floor management by the opposition and even though individual MLAs managed to corner the government on various issues, the government managed to wriggle away — their replies being cleverly crafted by the chief minister.
Not because of what the government had actually done, but because of the sins of omission and commission that were not properly highlighted. The House saw one or two opposition legislators, trying to corner the government by their voices were suppressed by the chief minister bringing up point of order or the speaker refusing to allow any further discussion. This was allowed to happen, as there was no united opposition and no concerted effort.
In fact last week, the token protest of a walk out did not make any difference as the House functioned as usual.
In fact, many points that the government was cornered on was by the BJP MLAs themselves.
In the last week, the Leader of Opposition did speak a little more and took on the government on some vital issues on be it the RP or the SEZ.
The opposition MLAs were silent even though the chief minister attacked the performance of the previous government in the presence of the former chief minister and other ministers with no one defending their government or the party.
Another striking fact is that this time BJP MLA Vishnu Wagh has been very quiet – in stark contrast to earlier sessions – and was mostly active in innocuous discussions like congratulatory motions.
All in all when the major issues came up, the government managed to get through them quite well, given that their over all performance has not been up to the mark.
