Thursday was a washout at the Bihar Assembly as the ruling and Opposition members quarrelled over violation of maryada (decorum) of legislative proceedings.

Opposition NDA MLAs demanded the suspension of ruling Grand Alliance MLAs who had climbed onto the reporting table as well as RJD MLA Bhola Yadav who the NDA members alleged had physically assaulted BJP MLA Gayatri Devi on Monday.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary refused to take further action and said that members of all the parties had already condemned the incidents and the matter should be closed. During the half-an-hour exchange of words which took place during Question Hour, the Speaker said it was the job of every MLA in to behave and let the House function.

"You (BJP members) are taking exception to the manner ruling party MLAs stood on the reporting table. But before this session, your MLAs have stood on the same table. There cannot be separate rules for different MLAs," Choudhary said while dismissing the demands of the NDA.

NDA MLAs stormed the Well of the House and raised slogans. Some of them objected to derogatory terms used against the Prime Minister by ruling alliance legislators.

Parliamentary affairs minister Srawan Kumar accused the Opposition of not practising what they preach.

"They (NDA members) are talking about unparliamentary methods used by ruling party MLAs. They themselves are storming the Well of the House," Srawan said.

Bhola Yadav, a close confidant of Lalu Prasad, maintained that he had not assaulted Gayatri Devi. "In fact it was she who abused me, my party and leader (Lalu) by calling us thieves," Bhola told The Telegraph. "I simply asked her to hold her tongue. But I did not physically harm her."

Gayatri Devi maintained that Bhola had indeed attacked her as a result of which her bangles were broken.

An RJD MLA, Prema Chaudhary, also alleged that she had been physically assaulted by BJP MLAs in the House. The BJP legislators alleged that Prema had cooked up the charge after the Bhola Yadav-Gayatri Devi spat.

When a group of women ruling party MLAs stormed the Well to counter the NDA MLAs' slogan shouting, JDU women MLAs did not join them. Later, a few RJD MLAs convinced a couple of women JDU MLAs to join in.

Later, NDA MLAs led by leader of the Opposition Prem Kumar led a march to Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum alleging that ruling party MLAs were engaged in "unparliamentary and indecent behaviour".