The entire opposition BJP in Himachal Pradesh boycotted the assembly for the third consecutive day today and did not participate in debate on budget for 2014-15.
The BJP members have not participated in the proceedings of the House for past seven days, since the budget session commenced and disrupted the governor's address, boycotted the budget speech, staged walk out and even disrupted the question hour.
The participation of the BJP members in the ongoing budget session which commenced on February 3 is "nil" and they did not even took part in question hours and all their questions have remained unanswered.
The speaker B B L Butail also took notice of the absence of BJP members and said "they are not present today also".
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who replied to two day debate on budget, said that "It's for the first time that the opposition has not only interrupted the governor's address but also the budget speech and discussions thereon."
Maintaining that it was against basic spirit of democracy, Singh said that the BJP was using "disruption of house and boycott" as tactics to put pressure and derail the probe into its "wrong doings but he would not be cowed down and probes would go on.
"No innocent person should have any reason to fear but those found guilty would not be spared", he declared.
He said that probe into acts of "omission and commission" of Himachal Pradesh Cricket association (HPCA) and other matters are progressing and "No amount of pressure tactics can deter us from the path of taking all the enquiries to logical conclusion.
The CM said the BJP members were giving more importance to Gujarat Chief Minister and the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's February 16 rally in Sujanpur than the assembly session.
Charging the BJP leaders with giving frivolous reasons for abstaining from the house, Singh said "I strongly condemn it and this reflects the shallowness and immaturity of the leadership, especially when the leader of opposition (Prem Kumar Dhumal) happens to be CM (chief minister) twice in the past."
He said the question raised by them should not also be replied in their absence and they have set a wrong precedent.
"They should not forget that they are cheating the people who have sent them to the Vidhan Sabha for raising their issues," he added.
Yesterday, the state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti had told reporters that "The chief minister was responsible for the stalemate. He has been using derogatory remarks against Dhumal and has been insulting our legislators in the assembly. This will not be tolerated and our protest will continue."
He said the remark of the chief minister that the "BJP legislators are bonded labourers" was humiliating.
Denying that he ever made any remark dubbing the BJP legislators as "bonded labourers", Singh has already clarified in the Assembly but in the same breath added that his personal view was that the BJP legislators are "helpless".
