The 10-day Assembly session convened to seek a vote-on-account began on a stormy note on Tuesday, as the Opposition Congress members resorted to slogan shouting and displayed placards against the alleged failure of the state government on all fronts, and disrupted the Governor's address to the House.

No sooner did Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma begin to read out from his prepared address, the Congress members stood up and resorted to full-throated slogans like “Nav hazar crore Nano ne, ratna kalakaro ne nanaiyo,” (referring to the sops worth Rs 9,000 crore given to the Tata’s Nano project and apathy shown to the misery of jobless diamond workers) and “Mantri tahomatdar, mukhya mantri pehredar” (referring to the CM shielding Minister of State Maya Kodnani, an accused in the post-Godhra riots).

The ruckus created by the Opposition benches forced the Governor to cut short his address to the House. Immediately after, Speaker Ashok Bhatt declared that the Governor’s address be treated as read and be tabled in the House. In an apparent bid to calm down the Opposition members, Bhatt then announced a 15-minute break.

Significantly, none of the ruling BJP members attempted to counter the Opposition members slogan-shouting act during the Governor’s address to the House.

When the House reassembled after the break, it paid condolences to former President R Venkataraman, former Prime Minister V P Singh, former Gujarat Chief Minister Chhabildas Mehta, former MLA Brahmukumar Bhatt and others who had died recently.

During the recess, the Congress members led by Leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil and senior party MLAs Siddharth Patel and Arjun Modhwadia gathered in front of the CM’s chamber in the Assembly premises and shouted the same slogans against the government.

Later, Gohil told media persons that the Opposition MLAs had no other option but to disrupt the Governor’s address, for it contained only the so-called achievements of the BJP government, and did not highlight several burning issues confronting the people of the state. He also criticised the Modi regime for seeking a vote-on-account instead of presenting a full budget for 2009-10 under the pretext of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to be held in April-May this year.