Thiruvananthapuram: Sour end to Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: The last day of the 13th legislative assembly ended on a sour note with the Opposition LDF boycotting the house raising slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and even the ruling front MLAs shouting slogans against the Opposition. Though the house was scheduled to be held till Thursday, the session was wound up on Wednesday because of the opposition’s continuous protest.

The opposition began the day’s showdown when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy sought to reply to the allegations raised by the Opposition in an adjournment motion notice over the court remarks against Mr. Chandy on the Palmolein case. The Opposition MLAs shouted slogans all through Mr. Chandy’s reply . In a tit for tat, the UDF MLAs raised slogans against the LDF when Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan spoke in protest of the denial of the adjournment motion.

Owing to the opposition’s protests, Speaker N Sakthan suspended the house for about an hour. As the opposition continued protests when the house resumed, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy moved the motion to wind-up the session on Wednesday by considering the mandatory business matters scheduled for Thursday also. Subsequently, the Opposition boycotted the house which adjourned sine die after passing the Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill.

Mr. Achuthanandan said that the government was getting rapped on the knuckles from the courts one after the other. CPM MLA Raju Abraham, who moved the  notice for the adjournment motion, alleged that Mr. Chandy had earlier decided to withdraw the palmolein case as he feared that he would be arraigned in due course.

Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said in reply to the notice that the opposition was trying to create a smoke screen out of the court observation on the palmolein case.