Bhubaneswar, March 17: The Congress today outsmarted the BJP in the race to adjourn Assembly proceedings, so that it could take up a discussion on the farmer suicide issue.

Yesterday, BJP leaders had taken the lead to get the House adjourned on the same issue.

Today, Congress MLAs, led by party chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati, stormed into the Well, demanding suspension of the Bargarh district collector and also admission of a privilege motion against agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy for "misleading" the House on the suicide of Hadu Bagarti, a farmer from Bargarh.

Maharathy on March 4 told the House that Bagarti had committed suicide because of a family dispute and not for crop loss or loan burden. After the deceased's wife asserted that no government employee had ever visited her house, the government ordered another probe into the incident.

Shouting slogans, the Congress members today disrupted the proceedings by trying to climb onto the Speaker's podium and snatch his microphone.

Speaker Niranjan Pujari adjourned the House for an hour. When the House met, BJP members joined the Congress legislators in the protest, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day.

The BJP had taken the lead in raising the issue during the last two days. It had stalled the proceedings, not letting the Congress to take initiative. The Congress had staged protests separately in the second half of the sessions of the last two days.

Yesterday, Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra was irked over the fact that he was shouted down by the BJP, his erstwhile floor partner.

"The BJP has no intention to discuss the farmer suicide issue. They create noise in the House only for political mileage and not for the interest of the farmers," Mishra had alleged.

BJP Legislature Party leader K.V. Singh Deo had said it was just a "quid pro quo". "Whenever we wanted to raise any issue in the House, they (the Congress members) had created disturbance in the Well and did not allow us to do so," Singh Deo had retorted.

However, the MLAs of two parties were seen jointly occupying the Well during the Zero Hour and in the afternoon session, forcing frequent adjournments. But, the demands of the two parties were different.

While the Congress sought the suspension of Bargarh district collector Anjan Kumar Manik and apology from Maharathy for giving false information to the House, the BJP demanded probe by a House committee on the farmer suicide and their plight.

The House has been witnessing repeated adjournments for the last three days as members of the BJP and the Congress continued to create pandemonium.