Bhubaneswar, April 4: The Assembly today witnessed an uproar with the BJD members accusing the Congress of using the legislature premises for party activities.

The BJD MLAs demanded an apology from the Congress members for destroying sanctity of the Assembly.

The Congress members, however, asserted that they had not done any wrong and alleged that the BJD had raised a “non-issue” to pre-empt discussion on various scams involving the ruling party.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, BJD member Ananta Das said the Congress had booked the Committee Room for holding a party meeting to discuss strategies for the ongoing Assembly session. The Congress leaders, including Jagdish Tytler and PCC president K.P. Singhdeo who were not the Assembly members, had attended the meet.

“The Congress has thus tried to turn the Assembly premises into party office and destroyed the sanctity of the House,” said Das, demanding an inquiry into the episode.

Das was supported by party colleagues Sanjay Das Burma and Kalpataru Das, who said that the Assembly premises had never been used for party activities. They demanded that the leader of Opposition and other Congress leaders should apologise in the House.

Countering the allegation, Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan recalled that BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, who was not a member of the House, had attended the joint legislature party meeting of the BJD-BJP combine held in the same room in 2000.

Supporting him, BJP legislator and former minister K.V. Jaynarayan Mishra said that senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu had also attended a similar meeting of the then ruling BJD-BJP combine.

Stating that according to parliamentary practice, any political party can hold its meeting in the Parliament annexe, BJP leader K.V. Singhdeo said that the Congress leaders had not committed any wrong by holding the meeting on the Assembly premises.

Tempers ran high when firebrand Congress member Anup Sai alleged that the treasury bench members raised the issue on the direction from the chief minister’s office. The peeved BJD MLAs were on their feet to voice their protest.

“It seems the BJD has got frightened after AICC leader Jagdish Tytler asked the party MLAs to raise corruption issues in the House,” said Sai.