Congress and Left Front legislators were placed in an embarrassing situation after the members of the Left Front Legislature Party MLAs walked out while Congress MLAs remained seated in the House on Thursday.

Fissures which threatened to develop into cracks in the Congress-Left Front unity were quickly cemented after Leader of the Opposition and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, Abdul Mannan left the session to join a Press conference being addressed by Left Front Legislature Party (LFLP) leader, Sujan Chakraborty after the front legislators had staged a walk out on Thursday.

Expressing solidarity with the LFLP, Mannan said that Congress members remaining in the House while the front MLAs walked out did not indicate any snag in the floor co-ordination between the alliance partners nor any disunity between them. The front MLAs led by Chakraborty walked out in protest after Speaker Biman Banerjee did not allow him to raise a issue on price rise and payment of dearness allowance to teachers and state government employees.

Mannan said at the Press conference that he had talked to Chakraborty on this issue and they had decided to raise it during "zero hour" of the House. Earlier, the Leader of the Opposition accepted a request from the state parliamentary affairs minister, Partha Chatterjee and the Speaker to attend Business Affairs committee meetings which the CLP together with the Left had decided to boycott on Wednesday.

Though Chakraborty said at the Press conference that LFLP will accept the request to attend the BA coming from the parliamentary affairs minister and the Speaker,he could not say so within the House. The alacrity on the part of Mannan was natural lest this is interpreted as the first sign of division within the months-old alliance. The CLP leader joining ranks with the LFLP leader was all the more necessary in the backdrop of state unit of CPI-M drawing fire from its central leadership for the worst ever electoral debacle following a tie-up with Congress.

Keeping this mind, Chatterjee had earlier said that the way spats are breaking out, he wondered where Mannan and Charaborty will be after the budget session.The state parliamentary affairs minister appeared to be indicating the stormy session which is likely to develop on 10 July when CPI-M’s polit bureau members talk to state unit leaders on the alliance in the city.

Mannan who had already spoken on the price rise issue said that both the segments of the Opposition should have been allowed to speak on this issue. When he mentioned it, the parliamentary affairs minister said that he will take up the matter with the chief minister. The CLP leader made it clear that attending the BA committee meetings do not indicate that the grievances for which it had been boycotted had been addressed.

We will rethink our decision if we find the issues which compelled the decision of boycott have not been dealt with, he said. "This incident will not affect our future floor-coordination in any way", Chakraborty said. "We will be alert in future to prevent a similar situation from rising", Mannan said.