Utter chaos prevailed in the Kerala Assembly today with the Speaker's podium being vandalised and members of the opposition and ruling benches coming to blows and in the din Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani managed to present his record 13th budget.
The MLAs also engaged in a scuffle with the watch and ward staff leading to injuries to several persons.
The House virtually turned into a battlefield with the opposition trying all means to prevent Mani, facing bribery allegations in the 'bar case', from presenting the budget.
Mani alongwith several of his cabinet colleagues had stayed back in the Assembly complex last night as the Opposition threatened to block his way to the Assembly.
LDF has called for a hartal tomorrow in protest against the alleged attack on their MLAs, including women and their cadres outside the House.
The agitation of the LDF and that of Yuva Morcha, BJP's youth wing outside the house also turned violent in many places with police resorting to lathi-charge, bursting tear gas shells and using water cannons to disperse angry crowds, which burnt a police jeep.
A 64-year-old CPI-M supporter, who took part in the protest organised by the LDF, collapsed and died at the venue of the protest near Assembly complex in the morning, police said.
Terming today's developments in the House as 'disgraceful' and 'unfortunate', Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said UDF will observe March 15 as 'Black Day'. The Left front MLAs had committed a 'serious offence' by trying to prevent Mani from presenting the budget by force and any action to be taken would be decided later, Chandy told reporters here.
A jubilant Mani said he was happy to be able to present the budget overcoming the opposition obstacles. He was only saddened that he could not offer prayers at the church before presentation of the budget which was his usual practise.
"With great difficulty I could perform the constitutional responsbility. The opposition had said there would be bloodshed in the House. But I could present the budget without any such thing," he said.
CPI-M veteran and Opposition leader, V S Achutanandan charged that no assembly procedures had been followed in the presentation of the budget and LDF members would abstain from participating in the budget discussion in the coming days.
Speaker N Sakthan said 20 watch and ward personnel, including Chief Marshal, were injured, while LDF leaders said 20 of their MLAs, including four women, sustained injuries.
LDF had organised a siege both inside and outside the Assembly to prevent Mani from presenting the budget.
