Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: Congress MLAs, led by Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra, today staged a dharna in the Assembly, alleging that BJD members had manhandled his party legislators on the House floor.

All eyes were on Mishra as a dharna by the leader of Opposition in the Well is a rare sight.

As Mishra, along with his party members, staged a sit-in, BJP members, too, joined them in the Well in a gesture of support and sought an apology from chief minister Naveen Patnaik for the unruly behaviour of the ruling party members.

Speaker Niranjan Pujari said: "It's not desirable for the Assembly to conduct its business when the Opposition leader is staging a dharna in the House."

The Speaker announced that he would convene an all-party meeting to resolve the deadlock in the Assembly.

Mishra, his party colleagues and the BJP MLAs ended the protest following the Speaker's request to take part in the proceedings. "Who can assure us that such incidents will not recur in the future," asked the veteran leader. "The leader of the House (chief minister) and the Speaker cannot be mute spectators to the assault on the Opposition members," he said.

Mishra alleged that as soon as the House met in the morning, the BJD members rushed towards the Opposition benches and manhandled the Congress members, who were standing on their seats to press their demand for a discussion on the Prakash Mishra case, in which Orissa High Court has passed strictures against the vigilance department for framing the senior IPS officer in a corruption case. The Supreme Court has also upheld the high court verdict. The chief minister was present in the House.

Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati alleged that the BJD legislators had attacked him, grabbed him by the throat and snatched away the banner he was displaying.

The Congress members have been demanding discussion on the issue for the past three days. However, the Speaker had rejected the demand on the ground that the matter was not of "urgent public importance".

Mishra alleged that the BJD legislators had manhandled the Congress MLAs at the behest of the chief minister to disrupt the Assembly proceedings to stall a discussion on the controversy surrounding self-styled spiritual leader Sarathi baba. The House was to take up an Opposition-sponsored adjournment motion on the issue and the chief minister was supposed to reply to the motion today.

BJD legislator Samir Dash, however, denied that treasury bench members had manhandled the Congress members. "They have been disrupting the Assembly proceedings for the past three days, demanding discussion on an individual (Prakash Mishra). This has hurt us, and we wanted to lodge our protest," he said.