The fuel price hike continued to haunt parliament that was adjourned for the second day on Wednesday and the opposition vowed not to relent on Thursday either even as Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari rejected the demand for voting after debate.

A loud uproar broke out in the Lok Sabha with angry members rushing into the well in the post-lunch session as the speaker rejected a bunch of notices for adjournment motion and then adjourned the house for the day. The Rajya Sabha was first adjourned soon after it assembled and finally for the day.

The Lok Sabha speaker allowed members to air their views for 90 minutes, much beyond the question hour they wanted to be suspended to take up the adjournment motion, and then adjourned the house to give her ruling only at 2 pm in the post-lunch session.

The opposition rejected her offer to allow any other form of discussion like under a call-attention motion if members gave notice as she said no doubt the issue they wanted to raise was very important as rise in prices of essential commodities affect the common man but the executive decisions of the government cannot be considered by the chair for allowing an adjournment.

An angry BJP-led NDA dubbed her ruling as unfortunate, disappointing and a shock to the common man already reeling under the shock of the new spiral of inflation.

The NDA leaders huddled in L K Advani's chamber to review the ruling and later BJP spokesman Gopinath Munde told reporters that the issue would be taken up more aggressively on Thursday and a joint strategy of all parties in this regard will be decided in the morning.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta described the speaker's ruling as a repeat of an argument put forward by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee quoting old Speakers' Rulings as "invalid argument" and announced a protest dharna by the Left parties in the Parliament House complex on Thursday.

Munde said all parties were one on the issue for immediate discussion on the adjournment motion and hence the NDA decided that the strategy to be adopted on Thursday be worked out by the entire opposition. "The BJP is not going to have any different take," he stressed.

The speaker adopted Mukherjee's reference to then speaker G S Dillon's ruling in May 1971 that the adjournment motion can be allowed only on failure of the government in its duties enjoined by constitution or law. She took the stand that the adjournment motion can be allowed only when the government does not discharge its constitutional and legal duties.

Mukherjee questioned admissibility of the adjournment motion on the basis of the ruling of late Ganesh Mavalankar in March 1950 and that of late Iyengar in 1957 and then referred to late Dhillon adopting their argument in a ruling in May 1971.