During the last sessions last day,both ruling and Opposition benches had come equipped with their strategies. While the ruling party wanted to highlight its achievements during the zero hour,the Congress strategy was to embarrass the government on various scams and not to let Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal pat his own back. The ruling party seemed to have won the first round when Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon allowed the CM to read out his statement just as zero hour commenced. The Congress soon put its second strategy into action - not to let the CM speak. I have listening to you quietly in all the sittings. But you cant listen to me for 10 minutes, the CM implored the Opposition benches. Both CM and Sukhbir also tried to stop and speak to Congress MLAs trooping out of the session after the adjournments. At one point,the Opposition even targeted the Speaker questioning his decision to end the precedent of allowing Opposition to speak first during zero hour. While state Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh had a low-key debut in this session,leader of opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal had the final word in matters of privilege. For more than four years,you allowed us to speak first during zero hour. As leader of Opposition,I wrote to you to allow us time to raise issues or extend the session. But you did not even bother to reply to my letter. We wanted to end the last session on a positive note. But you have decided to break all precedents. We even boycott your invitation for lunch after the session, she said before the House was adjourned for lunch.
