By IANS,
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj Thursday kept away from Speaker Meira Kumar’s post-session tea party, upset over interruptions by Congress MPs when Advani raised the bribery scandal in connection with the July 2008 trust vote.
Soon after Advani dared the government to arrest him for his party MPs waving wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha, the speaker had adjourned the house abruptly, as Congress MPs were creating a ruckus in the house trying disrupt the BJP leader’s speech.
Peeved at the disruptions, Advani also lodged a protest with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal over the Congress MPs’ behaviour in the house.
Immediately after the speaker adjourned the house, Advani and Sushma Swaraj started walking out of the Lok Sabha, instead of moving to the speaker’s chamber for the tea party. Noticing this, Bansal rushed to them and asked them to join in the speaker’s chamber for tea.
However, Advani angrily lodged his protest. Bansal tried to pacify him, but to no avail. Later, the veteran BJP leader joined Sushma Swaraj and they walked away.
Though they did not attend the tea party, Advani and Swaraj sent in BJP’s Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde, Chief Whip Ramesh Bais and senior MP Shahnawaz Hussain to stand in for them.
Sushma Swaraj has been upset with the speaker for giving extension to Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Vishwanathan, despite her reservations on the matter.