At least two Congress legislators and a few wardens hospitalised following bedlam in Kerala Assembly

In a rarely witnessed move, UDF legislators boycotted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Rule 300 statement on the Brahmapuram fire, filed out of the House and staged a sit-in protest on the corridor leading to the Speaker’s chamber

At least two Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) legislators and a few Watch and Ward officials were hospitalised after they reported faintness and body pain following a fracas in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Monday.

Trouble broke out in the House when Speaker A. N. Shamsheer denied Congress legislator Uma Thomas leave to move an adjournment notice under Rule 50 to discuss the law enforcement’s “failure” to arrest those responsible for the attack on a girl student at Chengottukonam on the capital’s outskirts recently.

Mr. Shamsheer deemed the issue trivial to warrant a rule 50 notice and denied the motion outright, triggering a strident UDF protest.

Opposition legislators trooped into the House’s well, raising anti-government slogans and holding banners, throwing the proceedings into disarray.

They engaged the treasury benches in an across-the-aisle shouting match, drowning Mr. Shamsheer’s entreaties for calm.

The Speaker rushed ahead with the day’s business, even as the UDF protest intensified.

Public Works Department Minister P. A. Mohammed Riyas’s seemingly off-the-cuff comment that the opposition lacked spine and was Sangh Parivar’s stooge exacerbated tempers.