It is a setback to the opposition alliance after its members were accused of creating unruly scenes, sloganeering, displaying banners, disobeying the orders of the speaker and causing disruption during the state budget speech of deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar in the assembly on Wednesday.

The state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshavardan Patil said on Thursday that Sena legislators Vinod Ghosalkar, Ravindra Waikar, Pratap Sarnaik, Eknath Shinde and Vijay Shivtare and BJP legislators Harish Pimple, Girish Mahajan, Vijay Deshmukh, Sardar Tara Singh had indulged in unruly behavior which had maligned the image of the assembly before the people as their behavior was broadcast live.

Patil asked the assembly to suspend the nine legislators till the end of December 2011. The motion for suspension of the opposition legislators was passed by a voice vote and speaker Dilip Walse-Patil confirmed the motion. Earlier, the assembly was adjourned twice when Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislators demanded action against the opposition legislators for heckling Pawar while he was delivering the state budget speech.

Senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse strongly objected to the motion, but was ignored in the din.

Khadse criticized the Congress-NCP led Democratic Front state government for gagging the voice of the opposition merely on the basis of their majority strength.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray denounced migrants from the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and said that it is because of them that Mumbai has been destroyed. Thackeray said: “I reiterate that because of a huge influx of migrants from the northern states, Mumbai has been destroyed. It took a long time for this destruction to happen, but now the cities of Pune, Thane and Nashik have become the dumping grounds of migrants from Mumbai.