Patna, Feb. 21: Governor Devanand Konwar, often criticised by the Bihar government, today earned the wrath of the Opposition when he repeatedly asked them to go to the streets to protest instead of raising slogans inside the Assembly, his jab having shades of the digs made by chief minister Nitish Kumar during earlier sessions.

Addressing the joint session of the Assembly and the Legislative Council on the first day of the long budget session, Konwar stopped reading the written text of his address and told the Opposition: “I have heard you. Now if you have to fight it out fight it politically. Go to the streets. Raising slogans inside the House will not benefit you. Please allow democracy to function in the House.”

The Opposition members were raising slogans and displaying placards on the issue of corruption, law and order and atrocities on backward castes when Konwar was reading out from the written text. For a change, the ruling benches backed the governor by thumping on the desks.

Konwar, a Congressman from Assam, was engaged in a running verbal duel with the party’s MLC Jyoti Kumari, who was simultaneously reading out from a magazine and hurling charges at the Nitish government. “It will not help you Madam. Please fight it out on the streets,” the governor stopped to tell the Congress member.

The miffed Opposition turned their guns on Konwar. RJD legislator Raghvendra Pratap Singh went on record before the media to demand the resignation of the governor, alleging that he had behaved in a “partisan manner”. However, his party colleague Samarat Choudhary was quick to clarify that Raghvendra Pratap’s views did not reflect the RJD’s opinion.

Privately, Opposition MLAs were surprised over Konwar objecting to their slogan-shouting during his address. “In the past also, the Opposition has raised slogans to air their disagreement over the governor’s speech which is approved by the cabinet. It is an accepted norm of protest. In the past, governors have ignored the interruptions and gone ahead with their speech,” said a senior RJD MLA. He recalled that during the Lalu-Rabri regime, Sushil Kumar Modi, then leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, would read out a parallel speech during the governor’s address as a mark of protest.

RJD members also alleged that Konwar had violated tradition. “The governor by tradition enters the Assembly and moves towards the Speaker’s chair from the side of the treasury bench. He leaves the Assembly from the Opposition bench side. But Konwar came and left from the treasury bench side and exchanged words with the Opposition benches while leaving,” remarked a senior RJD leader.

The governor has been under severe criticism from the Nitish government for his role as chancellor as universities. His appointment of VCs to various universities has been publicly criticised by education minister P.K. Shahi. Even recently, Shahi hit out at the governor for sitting on two bills. Given this tenuous relationship, Opposition leaders said, the governor’s demeanour today took them by surprise.

“The governor virtually told us what Nitish Kumar has been telling us in the House — to take our battle to the streets instead of raising the matter in the legislature,” said another RJD MLA.

The session will continue till April 4.