Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Forest Minister Shibu Baby John on Tuesday claimed that adverse personal remarks were made against him by a CPI(M) leader days after he took charge, a claim refuted by the LDF opposition which boycotted the House proceedings in protest.

During the fag end of discussions in the Assembly on several demands for grants in the revised budget, John said that on the 17th day after he took charge as minister, a CPI(M) leader had made adverse personal remarks against him, but he had not responded to that.

He made the allegation while referring to the incident in the House earlier in the day when the Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said that John's intervention during the response of Fisheries Minister V E Abdul Gafoor to an adjournment motion was intended to convey that the fisheries minister was "not competent" to answer the queries.

John said that following the incident he looked into the House records and found six instances during the last government's tenure when a minister had intervened during another minister's response.

"In one of them, the then forest minister intervened when the then CM was speaking. But, we did not say that was intended to convey his incompetence," he said, and added that adverse personal remarks were made against him after he took charge.

Strongly refuting the claim, CPI(M) leader K N Balagopal denied that anyone made such remarks against John.

Vijayan remarked that things were going on in the House contrary to usual practices and claimed that some persons were being specifically "sent" to make such allegations.

"We cannot cooperate with this, we are boycotting," he said and the opposition walked out of the House even as John questioned why the LDF was "intolerant to the truth".

The demands for grants under various heads, including Public Works, Tourism, Forest, Fisheries, Rural Development, Transport, Social Security and Welfare were subsequently passed by the House in the absence of the opposition.

John's 'intervention' during Gafoor's response in the morning led to a heated exchange between Chief Minister V D Satheesan and Vijayan over remarks made by the Marxist veteran allegedly questioning the competence of the state fisheries minister.