Guwahati, April 1: Assam Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi today said chief minister Tarun Gogoi did not dissuade him from moving ahead with his effort to finalise the definition of Assamese.

"The chief minister met me and discussed the issue but he never dissuaded me. In fact, he has never ever interfered with my work in the four years I have been Speaker," he said.

The assertion of the 78-year-old Speaker, a second generation Congressman and three-term MLA, assumes significance because party insiders had yesterday told The Telegraph that the chief minister had met the Speaker and dissuaded him from going ahead without taking the House into confidence.

The Congress and the Opposition AIUDF had yesterday objected to the Speaker's move to submit a report on the definition of Assamese through the House as it had not been discussed in the House, eventually compelling him to submit the report in his personal capacity in the Assembly.

The Speaker today sent the report to the chief minister's office around noon.

He had yesterday said it was now up to the chief minister to decide whether the report, finalised after wide ranging discussions with organisations, intellectuals and journalists after March 4, should be treated in the speaker's individual capacity or in his official one.

The report has left the ruling Congress in an awkward position with most senior members saying that it was not against the move but was against the process adopted by the Speaker to push through the report.

"As a Speaker he has to take the House into confidence but he never officially consulted any MLA," one of them said. Some went on to say that it was submitted at a time the NRC process was finally taking off.

The CPM today said the effort of the Speaker to find a definition of Assamese was partial and one-sided.

Party secretary Deben Bhattacharjya said it remained an enigma why Gogoi did not have a discussion with the political parties before coming to a conclusion.