Opposition Congress and the Left Front on Tuesday boycotted the second half of the West Bengal assembly's special session on Constitution Day over not being allocated enough time to speak in the House.
Special sessions have been called on Tuesday and Wednesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution.
Leader of the opposition and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan declined to speak on the issue during his turn as he was allotted only seven minutes to speak on the Constitution.
"I was allotted only seven minutes to speak on such an important topic. It is quite impossible to speak on such a topic in just seven minutes.
"So I declined to speak but didn't make it an issue in front of dignitaries. So in the second half I along with the Left Front decided to boycott the House," Mannan told reporters.
Left Front legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty too echoed views of Mannan and said neither his name nor anyone from his legislative party figured in the list of speakers.
"It is quite shocking that the government is organising a special session on Constitution Day, but is determined to curb the opposition's space. None of the Left MLAs featured in the list of speakers so we too decided to boycott the house in the second half," Chakraborty said.
Besides West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the special session on Tuesday was addressed by several eminent dignitaries including former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, former West Bengal governor and national security advisor M K Narayanan and Former Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) S Y Qureshi.
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