The four legislators — Shishir Shinde, Ram Kadam, Ramesh Wanjale and Vasant Geete — had created a disturbance during the assembly's opening session and assaulted Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Asim Azmi for taking an oath in India's national language, Hindi, instead of the regional vernacular, Marathi.
The assembly, taking serious cognizance of the assault on Azmi, had ordered for the four MNS legislators to be suspended.
According to sources, the voting of 13 MNS legislators in favor of Congress party candidates during the recent elections for the Maharashtra Legislative Council was rewarded with the revocation of the suspension.
After the assembly polls, the MNS had issued a diktat to all newly elected legislators to take their oaths only in Marathi. Defying the MNS diktat, Azmi began taking the oath in Hindi and was accosted by the four MNS legislators who snatched the microphone from him. They then dragged him from the platform before slapping him.
After the incident the four MNS legislators became aggressive; they condemned Azmi and shouted slogans against him in the assembly. Shocked by the incident, the house passed a resolution suspending the four legislators for four years, prohibiting them from entering the assembly's premises and participating in the proceedings.
The MNS received a big jolt with the suspension of four of its prominent legislators out of the 13 in the assembly. MNS leaders then engaged in a damage control exercise and pleaded for a revocation of the suspension that would allow them to participate in proceedings. The MSN was also able to grab an opportunity when council elections came.
MNS supremo Raj Thackeray said publicly that the MNS had supported the Congress during the council polls to get the suspension revoked. "This was a barter agreement with the Congress," Raj told the media.
The Bharatiya Janata Party initially opposed the suspension and later reversed its stance by welcoming it.
Earlier, the opposition parties became aggressive in the first part of the Monsoon session of the Assembly today. Raising slogans against the government and protesting against the lifting of the ban on American author James Laine's book "Shivaji" A Hindu King in Muslim India" by the Supreme Court the Opposition created noisy scenes.
The Speaker was then compelled to adjourn the house for 10 minutes, but when the Opposition continued with their acts and did not allow the Assembly to function, the Speaker adjourned the House till afternoon. When the House assembled again in late afternoon, the government moved a resolution to withdraw the suspension of the four MNS legislators, which was passed in no time.
Meanwhile, with the suspension being withdrawn, the four suspended legislators who had remained out of the Assembly for a long time, would return and participate in the Assembly proceedings from Tuesday.