The walk out came following Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi's rejecting the demand of the presiding officers of West Bengal, Karnataka, Orissa and Tamil Nadu to discuss the issue of imposition of President's Rule in Bihar, Hashim Abdul Halim, Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly told reporters.

Presiding officers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were also present at the press conference who claimed the support of presiding officers of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. Presiding officers of Bihar, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh are not attending the meeting.

Halim, who has been Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly for almost two decades, said that the presiding officers were directly affected by promulgation of Article 356 on the Legislative Assembly of any state.

Halim and his Deputy Speaker Anil Mukherjee, Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman D B Kalmankar, Tamil Nadu Speaker P T R Palamival Rajan, and Orissa Speaker Chintamani Samantarai walked out when Balayogi who was presiding, said the issue did not concern the presiding officers. Balayogi also said the issue was not listed in the agenda.

The West Bengal Speaker said the Cabinet decision had come about after the start of the conference and therefore could not have been listed in the agenda. However, there were previous precedents to show that such issues could be raised.

``It was unfortunate on the part of the Speaker to have refused to listen to their views'', Halim said adding that urgent issues of national importance should have been allowed to be raised at the conference.

Halim said the decision to impose President's Rule in Bihar had denigrated the office of the presiding officer, particularly when the state Assembly had given a vote of confidence to the government by a clear majority only a day earlier.

Halim said that he was shocked at Balayogi's casual approach to the issue and said the latter was not even prepared to listen to him. He said Mukherjee had sought to raise the issue in the morning but was denied permission later, he had himself urged Balayogi to allow a discussion on the issue as it affected presiding officers.

He pointed out that in the last conference in Shimla, the issue of the action of Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari had been raised after the conference began, and the presiding officers had even passed a resolution on the issue. He therefore pleaded that urgent issues could be taken up, particularly as it was the democratic right of the participants to raise them.

After the lunch interval, Balayogi had again called Halim to his chamber to thrash out the issue, but turned down the plea for raising the matter in the conference.

However, the presiding officers said they would participate in the open session on electoral reforms on the concluding day tomorrow and seek to the raise the issue there.