Walkout, Thoothukudy lights up all-party meeting

The customary all-party meeting ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session had its share of drama -- a threat of a walkout even before the meeting started and two rival parties fighting over mentioning an incident of police firing.

Just before the start of the meeting, YSR Congress MP Vijay Sai Reddy was "surprised" to see a name plate of Renuka Butta at the venue as a representative of his party. Butta, who won as a YSR Congress nominee from Kurnool Lok Sabha seat, had crossed over to rival TDP and the party had filed a disqualification petition, which is pending.

While all YSR Congress MPs had resigned from Lok Sabha in April and their resignations accepted recently, Reddy asked how can they invite Butta to the meeting and threatened to walk out if her name plate is not removed.

"All our MPs have resigned from Lok Sabha. How can an MP represent our party when we have filed a disqualification petition against her. Did our party leader write to you saying that she will represent our party," Reddy was quoted as saying in the presence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar.

"You will have to remove the name plate or I will have to walk out," Reddy threatened as Singh and Kumar sought to pacify him. Soon, instructions were given to officials to remove the name plate and normalcy was restored.

Police firing

The next episode came when DMK's T K S Elangovan spoke about the controversial police firing in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudy. AIADMK leaders immediately opposed mentioning this but CPI(M) leader Mohd Salim and CPI's D Raja came to Elangovan's support, asking what was wrong in mentioning it.

AAP's Sanjay Singh also used the occasion to make a point on the tussle between the Centre and Delhi government. Singh was speaking when Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the meeting hall and he used the occasion to accuse his government of not allowing Delhi government to work. "What mistake has the Delhi government done," he asked as Modi arrived.