Naidu meets with Opposition leaders to break impasse in Rajya Sabha over suspended MPs

Naidu announced the adjournment of proceedings till Monday to facilitate a discussion among the leaders to resolve the logjam

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday dialled some Opposition leaders, held a meeting with them in the presence of Leader of House Piyush Goyal to break the impasse over the suspension of 12 MPs and adjourned the House without transacting any business to facilitate a discussion among themselves.

Naidu first spoke to some leaders in the Opposition and then spoke to Goyal before the Rajya Sabha began the proceedings. In the House, he announced the adjournment of the proceedings till Monday to facilitate a discussion among the leaders to resolve the logjam.

"Today I had a talk with the Leader of the House and also some senior members of the Opposition. I would like to appeal to each one of you to please arrive at some sort of consensus to see that the house functions normally. In order to facilitate discussion among yourselves, I am adjourning the house to meet on Monday," Naidu said.

Sources said Naidu met Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh in the presence of Goyal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan.

Read | Suspended MPs hold ‘Jan Sansad’ in Parliament House

Both sides reiterated their stand on the issue. Sources said Goyal cited an instance of then Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley expressing regret on behalf of some MPs who were suspended, following which the punishment was revoked in a week.

Goyal is also learnt to have said that the Opposition should cooperate by apologising, but Kharge said that was out of the question.

"We had a short discussion where I demanded the government to revoke the suspension but they are not ready to talk about it. It is a collective decision of the Opposition to make an appeal against the illegal suspension of 12 MPs. They want the suspended members to apologise one by one in the House but they are not going to do anything of that sort," Kharge told reporters.

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