The BJP legislative party moved an adjournment motion in the Assembly on Thursday, demanding a statement from the health minister on adenovirus deaths in Bengal.

Speaker Biman Banerjee rejected the motion, leading to a heated exchange between BJP lawmakers and members in the treasury benches.

Speaker Banerjee allowed BJP MLA Sankar Ghosh to read the motion signed by 10 BJP lawmakers but refused to allow any discussion on it.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not present in the House when the motion was brought. The health department is helmed by Mamata.

The BJP’s motion stated that facilities to tackle the adenovirus outbreak were scarce in Bengal and the government must be answerable.

In Mamata’s absence, junior minister of the department Chandrima Bhattacharya said the chief minister had spoken in detail about the outbreak on Monday.

“Those who were absent from the House do not know, but chief minister Mamata Banerjee has shared all the details in the Assembly,” Bhattacharya said taking a dig at the BJP.

However, shortly before her address, BJP MLAs had walked out of the House that day.

Mamata had on Monday said that till Monday 19 children, aged below 5 years, had died. According to her, 13 of these 16 deaths were caused because of comorbidities and six died from the virus. She claimed that the virus was weakening.

After Bhattacharya refused a statement in the House on Thursday, BJP MLAs began sloganeering inside the Assembly. Amid the chaos, the Speaker adjourned the Assembly and BJP MLAs staged a walkout and demonstrated in the portico.

The leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the Speaker did the right thing by asking Bhattacharya to reply to the BJP’s questions.

“However the minister said the chief minister had already made a statement and because we were not there in the house, we didn’t hear it. We had walked out because of the autocratic behaviour of the treasury benches,” he said.

In an oblique dig at Bhattacharya, Adhikari said: “I do not need to learn how the House is run from someone who became an MLA in 2011. I am an MLA from 2006.”

BJP’s youth and women wings will hold a protest rally in Calcutta on Saturday against adenovirus deaths. It will start from Karunamoyee in Salt Lake and march towards Swasthya Bhavan.