Chandigarh, April 28 -- By staying away from the one-day special session of Haryana assembly - convened primarily by the BJP government with an intent to politically target the Opposition on the women's reservation issue- the Congress, the principal opposition group in the assembly on Monday ceded political ground to the ruling BJP on the issue. The move to boycott the assembly session was piloted by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Bhupinder Singh Hooda who accused the ruling BJP of "misusing the assembly" to further its false propaganda and decided to hold a parallel session outside the House with his party MLAs. "This assembly session has no constitutional backing. We have cornered the BJP by not attending the House and holding a parallel session outside the House," Hooda told HT. The CLP leader said the issue of women's reservation squarely falls under the jurisdiction of the central government not the state government. "Therefore, convening this session by the state government is unconstitutional,'' Hooda said. Political experts however said that by boycotting the special session, the Congress effectively handed the ruling BJP a free run to shape the narrative on the women's reservation issue. "What Hooda had preached in the pressers should have been forcefully spoken in the House. The BJP which lacks good authoritative speakers would have floundered trying to check our MLAs," said a Congress leader not willing to be named. Professor Ashutosh Kumar who teaches political science at Panjab University, Chandigarh, said that by boycotting the assembly session, the Congress simply gave a walkover to the ruling party. "In a parliamentary democracy, opposition parties should never miss an opportunity to attack the ruling party on the floor of the House,'' Kumar said. "The Congress had a great opportunity to underline the opposition unity in getting the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill defeated in the Lok Sabha. Also, the odds were stacked in their favour. Why the BJP clubbed the women reservation with the impending delimitation exercise and that too based on the 2011 Census or its failure to discuss and take opposition into confidence beforehand? Those were the relevant questions which the Congress could have asked in the House. However, it was a case of missed opportunities,'' Kumar added. Former Haryana finance minister, Sampat Singh, said that he was not a bit surprised at the evasiveness of the Congress. "The Congress bailed out the BJP government today. But there is a trend here which started from distribution of tickets for 2024 assembly polls, sabotaging the prospects of party's official candidates etc. It is very clear that the Congress under Bhupinder Hooda is helping the BJP government in every way,'' Singh, an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader said. The former minister termed Monday's boycott of the assembly session as a betrayal of public mandate. "I have no doubt the Congress in Haryana is mixed up with the BJP,'' alleged Singh....