Bangalore, July 10 (IANS) A scuffle broke out in the Karnataka legislative assembly Monday between the ruling and opposition members over corruption charges levelled against Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Trouble began when Congress member Ramesh Kumar and Housing Minister D.T. Jaykumar almost came to blows over some remarks made by the former against ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leaders, including the chief minister and Forest Minister C. Chennigappa, for allegedly collecting over Rs.1.5 billion from mining operators in Bellary district of north Karnataka.

The charges are levelled by a member of legislative council, K. Janardhan Reddy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - a partner in the ruling coalition.

To defuse the situation, speaker Krishna adjourned the house for the day after disallowing an adjournment motion moved by opposition leader and former chief minister N. Dharam Singh for a discussion on the bribery charges.

Intervention by members of both the parties and some independents prevented the situation from turning worse. Kumar, who rushed to the well of the house to stage a sit-in demonstration against the speaker's ruling, was forcibly stopped from hitting Jaykumar and taken out of the house.

"As serious corruption charges are levelled against the chief minister by no less than a member of the coalition party, we have urged the speaker to allow a discussion after the question hour. The speaker, however, declined our move saying the issue was not listed in the business agenda of the house," Singh told reporters later.

A similar attempt by the opposition Congress for discussion on the issue in the upper house (legislative council) led to heated exchanges with the ruling members, forcing the acting chairman of the house to adjourn the proceedings.

Protesting against the chair's ruling, opposing members staged a walkout and threatened to boycott the assembly proceedings till the chief minister came clean over the bribery charges or resigned on moral grounds.

Reddy had recently accused Kumaraswamy and Chennigappa of collecting bribes from several influential mining operators in Bellary district, which is reputed to have one of the largest deposits of iron and manganese ore in the country.

The district also houses many small and medium enterprises manufacturing steel and iron products, besides the Jindal Vijaynagar steep plant of the Jindal group at Thorangallu near Hospet.

Meanwhile, in a damage control exercise, the state unit of the BJP held a meeting of its legislative members and decided to resolve the issue with the JD-S at the coordination committee of the two coalition partners.

"Reddy was misquoted by the media as he did not directly name either Kumaraswamy or Chennigappa, but only said some people close to them were collecting funds from the mining lobby on their behalf," state BJP unit president D.V. Sadananda Gouda told reporters later.

The bribery charges came in the wake of an abrupt transfer of Bellary district superintendent of police Pankaj Kumar Thakur by Home Minister M.P. Prakash.

The transfer was criticised by a section of the BJP, especially Reddy and his elder brother Karunakar Reddy, who represents the party from the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency.

Kumaraswamy, however, said the accusation was made to blackmail him and his party by some disgruntled elements in the BJP.