On Thursday night, all of Kerala’s ruling United Democratic Front legislators, barring just the chief minister and two others, locked themselves in a room at the state assembly complex.

The opposition Left Democratic Front had threatened that all roads leading to the assembly would be blocked and that the state’s Finance Minister KM Mani would not be allowed to enter the assembly.

Mani is under attack for allegedly accepting bribes from bar owners in exchange of liquor licences.

The opposition followed suit and many of its legislators too spent the night in the assembly premises. The drama began unfolding early in the morning when the opposition tried to stop Mani from presenting his budget. Even when he did, amidst bedlam, there were massive protests outside the assembly organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as chaos inside orchestrated by the LDF.

As the finance minister proceeded to speed-read his budget speech in flat eight minutes, the speaker’s chair was toppled and his microphone was flung across the room, while legislators continued to raise slogans after standing on the benches in the assembly. Soon, the ruling party’s ministers and assembly personnel had to huddle around the finance minister to prevent the opposition legislators from approaching him.

Finally, the finance minister proceeded to the media room to present his budget but the protests are far from over. Reports of tear gas shelling, lathi charge on the protesters and even MLAs fainting in the assembly hall continue to pour in from the state which calls itself ‘god’s own country’ in tourism advertorials, inviting easy lampooning on social media.

Here is a look at the action that unfolded, both at the assembly and on Twitter: