BJP takes price war to assembly

The opposition BJP walked out of the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Thursday protesting Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s reported announcement outside the House on price rise during the budget session.

The opposition BJP walked out of the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Thursday protesting Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s reported announcement outside the House on price rise during the budget session.

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Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Dikshit had "broken tradition" and insulted the House by announcing to the media that her government was considering slashing VAT on LPG and CNG.

"The House is in session … how can the CM make announcements at places other than the floor of the House," Malhotra asked.

Dikshit countered, "No announcements whatsoever were made."

She also evoked a similar statement by the Union Finance Minister and said, "I just told reporters that there are lots of suggestions, few even from the opposition members … we will consider them but it would be the (Delhi) Finance Minister (A K Walia) who take care of such things in his final budget reply on March 29."

Speaker Yoganand Shashtri said "indeed there is a rule that no announcements can be made outside while the House is in session but at the same time the CM has denied that she said any such thing."

Malhotra disagreed and drew the attention of the Speaker, "That is totally wrong. There are newspaper reports mentioning this. She is on television stating this."

With loud protests, the BJP members soon walked out of the House.