Assembly session was going on when Oommen Chandy was Chief Minister. In the Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister's office is next to the Assembly Hall and the canteen is a little far. The assembly starts at 8:30 am. One hour question and answer period. Then there is the adjournment motion, call for attention, and then submission. Adjournment motion is the most problematic issue. The matter that needs to be discussed urgently will be presented as an adjournment motion after ceasing the assembly. An adjournment motion is usually moved by the opposition. Therefore, if the speaker does not permit it, a walkout is guaranteed.

It is a common belief that once members leave, they will not return that day, but that is wrong. Members will return and participate in the discussion. As the discussion is often long, boring and politically motivated, the assembly tends to have fewer members. Most people spend their time in the canteen or the library. The chief minister, leader of opposition and ministers have retiring rooms in the Legislative Assembly.

They will most likely be in their rooms during the discussion and there will be many meetings and visitors. At the end of the assembly discussion, the matter will be put to a vote. The speaker will ring the bell before the vote. This is a notice to members outside the hall. It is a common sight for members to run into the hall when the bell is rung. If the polls are lost, it will be an embarrassment for the government and a gain for the opposition. That is why both sides compete.

Oommen Chandy was in the Chief Minister's room that day. A heated discussion was going on in the hall. Immediately after the discussion, the voting bell rang. Hearing that, the MLAs in the canteen and the ministers in the room rushed to the hall. Oommen Chandy, who was strict in matters of Assembly session, also ran to the hall. Meanwhile, some people were waiting outside his room to submit a petition to the Chief Minister. These people were first-time visitors to the Legislative Assembly.

The visitors were startled when they heard the bell ringing and saw the Chief Minister, ministers and MLAs running. The visitors ran after them thinking it was an emergency warning bell. When they entered the assembly hall, the door was closed, so the visitors ran and jumped out through the first gate they saw. The truth came out when those who were running in front of the heavily guarded Legislative Assembly were caught and questioned by the security. Seeing the chief minister and others running, the visitors mistook it for an emergency. 'Do we have a chance in this place where even the Chief Minister is not safe?' Security also had no answer to their question.

An eventful budget presentation

Oommen Chandy was the finance minister in the K Karunakaran cabinet in 1991. The new finance minister had to present the budget within a few days of coming to power. The maiden budget of the finance minister, who is not a financial expert, should not be bad. Oommen Chandy got up in the morning to read the budget for the last time but to the surprise of the finance minister, the budget speech was not printed. The tensed officials said they could not compose the entire budget speech. What to do?

'How many pages done so far?', asked the Finance minister. '24 pages', replied the officials. After taking those pages, the finance minister reached the assembly and decided to start his speech with whatever he got. The officials were told to bring the rest as soon as the composing was over. The finance minister wanted to prolong the budget speech, but how? Fortunately, Varkala Radhakrishnan had raised a point of order. The finance minister opposed allowing it. When the Finance Minister responds to the point of order, two members of the ruling party should strongly oppose the finance minister. The opposition will create a fuzz about it and the budget speech can be delayed. The finance minister prepared the plan.

Things went as planned. The opposition took the bait. The assembly got heated up. The budget presentation was delayed for half an hour as planned by the finance minister. When the minister started presenting the budget, the necessary papers had reached him already. When one set ends, the next set will come and he will bend down to pick it up pretending to drink water. Thus the budget was successfully presented without any doubts.