Congress boycotts Odisha governor’s address

Congress members boycotted the address of Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare and walked out of the house over the government’s alleged failures, minutes after the budget session of the Odisha legislative assembly began here Tuesday.

As soon as Bhandare began his address, Congress members stood up and tried to disrupt him. Accusing the government of having failed on all fronts, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh made a parallel speech.

Congress members walked out after the obituary references for the former legislators as well as the police and security personnel who lost their lives in recent months.

The 29-working-day session of the assembly is scheduled to conclude on April 7 with an interval from March 1 to March 13. State Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadai is scheduled to present the budget Feb 24.