As a mark of protest, members of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party arrived at the Vidhan Sabha building by horse-drawn carriage, which surprised many. They were dressed completely in black.

The 13 MNS legislators told the media that they were marking a “Black Day” in protest of the perceived failure of the Congress-led Democratic Front government to control rising prices.

They also demanded the reinstatement of four MNS legislators who were suspended a few months ago for assaulting Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi over the Marathi language issue.

The MNS legislators further demanded that Azmi should also be suspended from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for a period of five years.

Meanwhile, tight security arrangements were in place at the legislative assembly premises prior to the budget session. There were more officers deployed than usual.

Several legislators protested against the unprecedented security measures. Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal informed them that everyone would have to abide by the security rules.

In another development, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that the federal home ministry had expressed its displeasure against Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief KP Raghuvanshi for revealing information to the media about the two suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists, who were arrested on Sunday on charges of planning to blow up the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and oil and gas tanks belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Mumbai.

Chavan said that action would be taken against Raghuvanshi after discussions with state home minister R.R. Patil.

The federal home ministry had objected to the leaked information and had instructed the Maharashtra government to take action against the ATS chief.

“The government has taken the objections of the federal home ministry seriously,” Chavan said.

Chavan refused to comment on last month’s German bakery blast, saying it would not be appropriate to disclose anything while investigations are in progress.

“If sensitive information uncovered during the course of investigations is revealed, then it would hamper the investigations. Therefore, police officers should not reveal any such information,” Chavan added.