New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi said on Thursday it was "shameful that the parliamentary affairs minister can speak such lies on the floor of the House" after Ananth Kumar told the Lok Sabha the Congress was solely to blame for the paralysis in Parliament although it was AIADMK members who were creating the ruckus.

Cries of "shame, shame" had resounded in the Lok Sabha when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House yet again on Thursday, insisting once more that she couldn't possibly count the members favouring a no-confidence motion because of the chaos.

Like before, it was the AIADMK members creating the commotion, shouting in the well for the formation of a Cauvery water board. Minister Ananth Kumar again blamed Sonia, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.

Friday, the last day of the budget session, will bring to an end what the Opposition sees as a 22-day-old political charade scripted by the BJP, with help from the AIADMK, to prevent a no-trust debate that would have featured uncomfortable topics for the government.

Never before have so many notices for a no-confidence motion been blocked for so long a time. The Lok Sabha cannot take up any business unless the pending no-confidence notices are disposed of.

Congress House leader Mallikarjun Kharge pleaded for a discussion on the no-confidence motion, saying there was no doubt the notice had the support of the required 50 members.

Left and Trinamul MPs too asked the Speaker to take the motion up but she read out from a prepared text: "I am duty bound to bring the no-confidence motion but am not in a position to count (heads)."

As the AIADMK members continued to shout in the well, Kumar said: "The sole reason for the deadlock is the Congress. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have created this hurdle."

He added: "We hail the NDA members who have decided not to take their salaries for this period when Parliament did not function. I want to know what the Congress members will do."

Kumar didn't mention the AIADMK at all.

Sonia stood up and asserted her right to respond but wasn't given a chance to speak.

The UPA chairperson later told NDTV: "I think it's shameful that the parliamentary affairs minister can speak such lies on the floor of the House. The Congress has always been sitting patiently and requesting a discussion. It's the government and its allies that have not been allowing Parliament to function."

The government has made no effort in the past few weeks to resolve the standoff. On Wednesday, the BJP said NDA MPs would not draw their salaries and allowancesfor the 23 days (including Thursday and Friday) the House was (and would be) paralysed, implying they knew the logjam would not end in the last two days.

All the Opposition parties gathered in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Parliament premises on Thursday morning and held a demonstration.Along with Congress MPs, led by Sonia and Rahul, there were members from Trinamul, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party, the Left twins, DMK, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, National Conference and others.

They held up placards mentioning the various topics they were thwarted from debating by the government's alleged ploy of disrupting Parliament through friendly parties. Among the issues mentioned were the no-confidence motion, bank fraud, Dalit atrocities, agrarian distress, job crisis and the plans for Air India's divestment.

The placards also mentioned the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh and the formation of a Cauvery water board, the two subjects that had led the Telugu Desam Party and the AIADMK to disrupt both the Houses initially.

Desam later yielded to persuasion from other Opposition parties and moved a no-confidence motion instead. But the AIADMK persisted with its bedlam, prompting the Congress to accuse it of working to help the government.

Mahajan had in the past cracked down on unruly MPs and even suspended a few Congress members, but showed unusual leniency this time.

She chose to adjourn the House within minutes this session, unlike some previous instances when she ran the Lok Sabha amid chaos for hours together.