New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) Ugly scenes prevailed in the Rajya Sabha Monday following a scuffle between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member S.S. Ahluwalia and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, forcing a brief adjournment of the house after which it passed the 2007-08 budget by a voice vote.

The trouble began as the house assembled at 2 p.m. after two adjournments forced by the BJP over last week's violence in West Bengal's Nandigram area that left at least 14 people dead.

Even as Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan called Chidambaram to move the Finance Bill for 2007-08, Ahluwalia advanced menacingly toward the treasury benches waving his hands and attempted to snatch the papers from the finance minister.

While nothing was audible as to what Ahluwalia said, Congress members immediately formed a cordon in front of Chidambaram and pushed the BJP MP back.

Khan then adjourned the house for 15 minutes to enable tempers to cool.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was present throughout.

When the house reassembled, Chidambaram moved the bill that members from the treasury loudly supported.

The Rajya Sabha also passed the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill. The Lok Sabha has already passed these bills.

This is the second time during the current session that ugly scenes have been witnessed in parliament.

Last week, MPs of the DMK and the Communist Parry of India-Marxist (CPI-M) almost came to blows in the Lok Sabha over the National Maritime University being shifted from Kolkata to Chennai.