NEW DELHI: The Opposition NDA Monday staged "silent" protest in the Lok Sabha against Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who had referred the cases of 32 MPs, mostly from the BJP, to the Privileges Committee for their "unruly behaviour".

The decision to adopt "soft" protest mode was taken at a meeting of NDA leaders chaired by leader of Opposition L K Advani here.

BJP Deputy leader in Lok Sabha, V K Malhotra told repoters that, "Opposition MPs will remain silent in the Lok Sabha throughout the day and a meeting will be held tomorrow morning to decide the protest strategy."

"In fact, we will meet every day to decide the strategy," he added.

accordig to the sources the Opposition alliance does not want to resort to a hard approach on the first day itself.

"We are adopting a Gandhian way of protest. Let's see how it works out," a senior NDA leader said.

In an unprecedented move, Chatterjee has referred to the Privileges Committee cases of as many as 32 Lok Sabha members mainly belonging to the opposition for "disorderly conduct" in the House on April 24 after his repeated plea to agitating members had fell on deaf ears.