Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the BJP of disregard for the Bengal Assembly at seeing vacant Opposition benches during her address in the House, while the saffron camp accused her government of flouting norms of the legislature to stifle the Opposition.

Referring to the Opposition’s “awhongkar (arrogance)”, she said: “We are the only political party to deliver on the promises made in our election manifesto. Others say “Achhey din ayengey toh burey din ajatey hain (Good days will arrive but bad days arrive instead). Those who should’ve been here to listen to this are not here. Why they aren’t here, I do not know.”

This was said in the Assembly shortly after Trinamul MLAs Udayan Guha of Dinhata, Subrata Mondal of Gosaba, Braja Kishor Goswami of Santipur and Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay of Khardah , elected to the House in the by-polls of October 30, took oath.

“Four new MLAs got elected to the House. The convention of democracy is that even the defeated (party) should come forward to congratulate the victors. But why they are absent, only they can say,” said the Trinamul chief.

The BJP objected to the conduct of the ongoing session of the Assembly, as it coincides with the post-Durga Puja phase. Its legislature party had also pointed out that the state government need not have convened the session now, simply because there is no major business for it to conduct, especially by way of bills.

The BJP’s state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar, responding to Mamata’s criticism, said his party’s objections were conveyed formally.

“Kali Puja, Diwali, Chhath Puja, Jagaddhatri Puja… in this season of pujas, her government went ahead with a session of the House, deliberately… only so that the Opposition is unable to participate. Our MLAs were, are and will be with the people,” he said. “Even a party like the CPM, which does not believe in religion, did not keep the House in session (in the Left Front regime) during such religious festivals.”

Majumdar also brought up the absence of leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in a meeting to pick two information commissioners for the state, which was to be attended by him, Mamata and Speaker Biman Banerjee.

“She gave a 12-hour notice to our leader of the Opposition to attend such a crucial meeting. These things cannot happen this way. There are specific rules and set protocols of this historic House, with a rich tradition…. At least respect that tradition,” said Majumdar, referring to Suvendu’s objection to attend the meeting as he was not given details of the applicants to the posts a week in advance.

In her address, Mamata reiterated her attack against the BJP-led Centre, holding it responsible for prices skyrocketing on account of a steep rise in fuel prices, even as the BJP’s Bengal unit continued protesting in the streets, demanding that her government reduce the taxes levied by the state on petrol and diesel.

Mamata’s remarks came in the wake of days of the BJP’s attempts to politicise the issue of the Bengal government not allowing further cuts in taxes on fuel.

On Wednesday, the Centre announced an excise duty cut on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 a litre, respectively. Bengal collects 25 per cent tax on petrol and 17 per cent on diesel.