VP Dhankhar calls for consensus meet at 2:30 pm today

In view of the continuous logjam in the Rajya Sabha over the last week, Chairman of the House Jadgeep Dhankhar called a meeting of the floor leaders at his chamber on Tuesday to resolve the issue.

New Delhi:Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, called for a consensus meeting of the floor leaders at his Chamber at 2:30 pm on Tuesday. This comes after the initial meeting called at 11:30 am was attended by only three party leaders. MPs from the BJP, YSRCP, and TDP were present at the meeting while the remaining Opposition MPs opted not to attend it.

The Chief Whip of Congress Legislature Party and the floor leader of DMK Legislature Party called on the Chairman before the meeting and indicated that several Opposition Parties would not be attending the meeting inspite of the Chairman calling it "unwholesome" and "inappropriate". Leaders from Congress, AITC, DMK, AAP, BJD, RJD, CPI (M), JD(U), AIADMK, NCP, SP, SS, CPI, TRS, AGP, and others chose to stay out. The Opposition MPs instead staged a protest against the Central government's indifference to call for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani issue at the corridors of the Parliament building.

The logjam in the Rajya Sabha for the last few days has been unfortunate and the meeting was convened to overcome this, the Vice President tweeted from its official Twitter handle. "Hon'ble Chairman finds it expedient to request floor leaders of the Parties, who absented from the meeting at 11:30 am today, to revisit their decision and attend a meeting scheduled at 2:30 pm today in his Chamber," he added.

Both Houses of Parliament witnessed little business in the second half of the Budget session ever since it commenced on account of heavy sloganeering by both the Opposition and the ruling BJP MPs ever since the Hindenburg report on Adani stock manipulation came out.

While the Opposition has upped their protest in demand for a parliamentary probe into the Adani issue, the BJP MPs demanded an apology from Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for his 'democracy in danger' remark at London. The BJP alleged that Rahul Gandhi had spoken about internal issues at a global forum thereby terming him 'anti-national'.