RS Gavai. (Deepak Kumar)

Patna, Feb. 22: Governors are used to Opposition clamour for a state government’s dismissal, but R.S. Gavai was still left red-faced in the Assembly today.

The Bihar governor was facing slogans not against the ministry in Patna but the one in Mumbai.

“Why are you not asking the Maharashtra government to lodge a case of treason against Raj Thackeray and Bal Thackeray?” cried Rashtriya Janata Dal member Shakuni Choudhary, smarting from the recent attacks on migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Gavai’s home state.

Gavai, 79, is from Darapur village in Maharashtra’s Amravati district and was a lawmaker in the western state for 30 years, rising to become its legislative council chairman.

“Why should the Maharashtra government not be dismissed for its failure to check the assault on the people of other states?” Choudhary continued to harangue him.

The governor, greeting MLAs after addressing a joint session of the House, stopped and turned a deep red.

Earlier, during his speech that kicked off the budget session, even a treasury bench member had interrupted him with a shout of “Maharashtra sarkar ko barkhast karo (sack the Maharashtra government)”.

The stream of questions and slogans from the Opposition continued as Gavai shook hands with MLAs on his way out of the House.

Moments later, however, the governor said he had “no ruffled feelings” and condemned the assault on north Indians in Maharashtra.

“I strongly condemn a section of the people in Maharashtra troubling their counterparts from other states. All of us Indians are brothers and sisters and we should live and work with this spirit,” the governor told the media.

“I strongly believe that sanity will prevail eventually to put an end to this aberration.”