Can only request BJP to attend: Virbhadra

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Tuesday said the government has put in efforts so the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members attend the budget session of the assembly.

"They are not coming. What can we do? I can only make a request to them through media. If they think I would go crawling on my knees to get them in the house, it is not possible," he told reporters here.

The opposition BJP continued its total boycott of the assembly session for the seventh consecutive sitting Tuesday.

The BJP legislators have been boycotting the house since Feb 7, the day the state's budget was presented, over Virbhadra Singh's "humiliating" remark.

BJP state president Satpal Satti had told IANS Virbhadra Singh had remarked that BJP legislators "are bonded labourers". Official sources said his comment on a senior BJP leader was indirectly aimed at former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Earlier, the opposition had been disrupting the house since the session began Feb 3.