The Congress and Left Front members held joint and separate protests in the assembly premises and also hit the streets on Thursday to protest the alleged assault on Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan inside the house.
The Opposition groups announced they would place a symbolic alternate budget by holding a mock session on Friday -- the day two of their boycott of the session -- when Finance Minister Amit Mitra is slated to place the budget in the house.
Wearing aprons containing pictures of the vandalism in the assembly lobby on November 30, 2006, by then opposition Trinamool Congress members, the Congress members shouted slogans and staged demonstrations in the assembly lobby and outside the gate.
Mannan was suspended by Speaker Biman Banejee for two days on Wednesday as the Congress legislator refused to heed his directive to take off a similar apron he wore during the house session on Wednesday.
Mannan, carrying a placard, instead trooped to the well of the house and staged a sit-in, prompting the Speaker to call in the marshal and other security men to remove him.
However, with the other Congress members joining him, Mannan tried to resist his eviction, triggering a scuffle between the security personnel and the lawmakers.
Mannan fell ill during the disturbance, and was rushed to a hospital and was admitted in an ICU. He is to undergo a pacemaker implant on Friday.
On Thursday, both Left Front and Congress members held demonstration at the base of B.R. Ambedkar's statue in the assembly premises.
"Tomorrow we will place an alternative budget and hold a mock session in the assembly premises when the government places its budget in the house," Congress lawmaker Manoj Chakraborty said.
"The state Congress President will be there with us on Friday. We will then sit down and chalk out the next course of action," he said.
The Opposition had earlier announced a two-day boycott of the assembly on Thursday and Friday.
Left Front legislature party leader Sujon Chakraborty said: "Our budget presentation will be symbolic -- a two-page document statement. Inside, they are going to utter untruths about our industry, agriculture and employment generation. This is ruining the state."
The Opposition parties also blockaded roads and took out protest rallies in various parts of the state on the issue.
Some Congress activists were arrested when they staged a noisy demonstration outside the north gate of the assembly. The demonstrators scuffled with the police, who arrested some of them.
Congress workers put up a road blockade in North East Kolkata's Chinar Park. They also demonstrated near the Curzon Gate of Burdwan town.
The Left Front took out a protest rally from Dharmatala to Ramlila Maidan, calling Wednesday's developments as black day for democracy and an effort to muzzle the opposition.
Led by Left Front chairman Biman bose and CPI-M State Secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, the protesters carried posters, banners and flexes which cried out against "snatching of democratic rights of legislators in the assembly".
However, the state government condemned the behaviour of the Opposition.
"It's a shame that such things are happening in a democracy. The Speaker presides over the House. This is our tradition and culture. I hope all lawmakers will abide by this tradition and culture," said Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee.
--IANS
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