Bangalore: The controversial diary issue rocked both the Houses of Karnataka Legislature on Thursday. With the BJP members insisting Speaker B M Koliwad allow them to raise the diary issue and ruling Congress members objecting to it, the Speaker has to adjourn the Assembly to Friday.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) officials recovered a daisy during a raid on the residence of and office of MLC Govindaraju, a close confidant of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

As soon as the Assembly session began, Leader of Opposition Jagadish Shettar demanded Speaker allow him to move adjournment motion to raise the diary issue. The Speaker has agreed to allow Shettar to raise the issue after Question Hour.

As soon as Shettar began to speak on the diary issue, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T B Jayachandra raised an objection. At this juncture, Minister for Health and Family Welfare K R Ramesh Kumar has said the Assembly has no authority either to get information on the diary from them or to summon them. “This House has no jurisdiction on the diary issue. It will be a bad precedent if Speaker allows the legislators to debate the diary issue,’’ Minister Ramesh Kumar said.

Meanwhile, the Speaker announced withdrawing his permission to Opposition Leader Jagadish Shettar to raise the diary issue in the House. The Speaker’s announcement made BJP legislators to rush to the well of the House to stage dharna. The Speaker adjourned the House to 3 pm. With the BJP legislators continuing their dharna, the Speaker has adjourned the House to Friday morning.

It may be recalled that BJP leaders have alleged that diary contained information about the leader of Karnataka Congress giving Rs 1,000 crore to Congress high command. Karnataka state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa also alleged that the diary contains details of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah receiving Rs 65 crore kickback for the steel bridge project which was later cancelled by the state government.

In the Legislative Council, K S Eshwarappa, Leader of Opposition, demanded Council Chairman allow an adjournment motion to facilitate a debate on the diary issue since the people want to know the truth on the diary of MLC Govindaraju. BJP members staged a walk out when the Chairman did not allow the debate on the diary issue. Eshwarappa demanded the state government handover the diary issue to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).