Tuesday, August 8 2006 10:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The NDA yesterday (Aug 7, 2006) announced a one-day boycott of the Lok Sabha today (Aug 8, 2006) in protest against Speaker Somnath Chatterjee whom it accused of suppressing the Opposition's voice in the House.

The deputy leader of the Opposition in the House, Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters that NDA members would also hold a black-band sit-in demonstration around the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament premises.

"The Opposition leaders will not attend their daily meeting tomorrow with the Speaker. Nor will they sign the daily register to protest the suppression of the voice of the Opposition in the House by him today," he said.

The BJP leader, whose party had dropped plans to bring in a no-trust motion against Chatterjee in the current session apparently after they met with Opposition from within the NDA, however, indicated there was no immediate proposal in this regard.

"We'll discuss it with our partners," he remarked.

But the Opposition leaders, who met at senior BJP leader L K Advani's home here, objected to some of the Speaker's observations on them today during the uproar in the House over leakage of the Pathak Authority report.

"The Speaker appeared more like a representative of the ruling UPA," Shiv Sena leader Anant Geete said.

JD(U)'s Prabhunath Singh, whose party had opposed the BJP's no-trust plans against the Speaker, announced he would boycott the House for a week.

The NDA, which will meet tomorrow again to plan out its strategy for the Rajya Sabha, also objected to the Speaker going through the listed business in the House despite the din.

The meeting was attended by NDA convenor George Fernandes, Akali Dal's Rattan Singh Ajnala and the BJD's B K Tripathy.