Congress Legislative Party (CLP) will boycott an all-party meeting convened by the Speaker Biman Banerjee at the state Assembly on Thursday. Announcing this, leader of the Opposition, Abdul Mannan said on Wednesday that since the Speaker does not conduct the House on the basis of mutual understanding with the Opposition our boycott is a mark of protest towards his mode of functioning.

Training his guns on the Speaker, the leader of the Opposition said the former has not yet initiated any action against the Congress legislators who have defected to Trinamul Congress. How can the Speaker allow legislators raise different issues in the House as our party MLAs even after they have left our party and joined another outfit, he asked.

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“Not taking any action against the MLAs who have switched sides is not the sole action of the Speaker which has irked us,” the leader of the Opposition said. It was the Speaker who has arranged alternative sitting arrangement for the legislators who have joined Trinamul, he said.

The Speaker has convened short sessions lest the Opposition move a “no-confidence” motion againsat him, the Leader of the Oppostion alleged. Even the calling attention and adjournment motions of the Oppositon on issues like the outbreak of dengue has not been allowed by the Speaker, he alleged.

All these factors do not encourage us to attend a meeting convened by the Speaker, the leader of the Opposition said. We hope the front MLAs will support our decision and stay away from tomorrow’s meeting, he added.