Speaker's chair by four Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLAs amid loud slogans. The House then had turned into a battleground of sorts. Paperweights, chairs, the Constitution and microphones were hurled at each other. The Speaker's chair was vandalised and even Mahatma Gandhi's bust in the House was not spared. The newspapers then described the incident as a blot on the democratic tradition of the Assembly and also published photographs of the vandalism which occurred in the House. There was much confusion in the House and it was under these circumstances that Speaker Fugro put the cut motion on demands for grants no. 3- Administration of Justice, to vote. The cut motion was accepted and the division of votes was 15–13. The success of the cut motion meant an exit of the Kakodkar government. Subsequently, Speaker Narayan Fugro stood on the podium and amid the din, declared the defeat of the government on the cut motion and adjourned the House sine die. After Speaker Fugro left the House, the Deputy Speaker Makanbhai Morarji Bhatela occupied the Speaker's chair and announced that the House was adjourned to meet again at 2:30 p.m. on 24 April 1979. Subsequently, Speaker Fugro again entered the House and adjourned the House sine die. Kakodkar sat quietly and it was only later that she castigated the behaviour of her MLAs. In a bid to safeguard her position, she is supposed to have declared that she would not accept the Speaker's ruling because it was not made from the Speaker's chair but from the corner of the dais. The Lieutenant Governor P. S. Gill who received the Speaker's report stated that a defeat on the cut motion to budgetary demands was tantamount to a no-confidence motion in the ministry and that he was convinced that Shankar Laad enjoyed the majority. It was not left to the Union Government to take a decision regarding whether Laad should be allowed to form the ministry or whether President's rule should be imposed. Shashikala Kakodkar subsequently rushed to New Delhi with the Deputy Speaker Bhatela, which was seen as an attempt to apparently make the transfer of power in favour of Laad as difficult as possible. She called on the President of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai and the Union Home Minister Hirubhai M. Patel probably urging them to dissolve the Assembly and impose President's rule. Nine of