Delhi Confidential: With Budget session around the corner, Om Birla cuts short Bahrain visit

With the second half of the Budget session beginning on Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has to cut short his programmes in Manama, Bahrain, where the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is holding its 146th assembly. Although the meeting is scheduled between March 11 and 15, Birla will return to Delhi on Sunday. With several bilateral meetings with IPU members lined up, Birla left for Bahrain on Thursday evening. He is also scheduled to interact with the Indian diaspora and visit the 200-year old Shrinathji Hindu temple in Manama. Birla will participate in the general debate of the 146th assembly on Saturday. His topic: Promoting peaceful co-existence and inclusive societies — fight against intolerance.

Meeting A Senior

Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel, was in Jabalpur on Thursday, where he met former MP and senior BJP leader Jayashree Banerjee. He greeted her on the occasion of Holi and later tweeted his pictures with Banerjee at her residence and tagged BJP president J P Nadda. Banerjee, who represented Jabalpur Lok Sabha constituency from 1999 to 2004, is Nadda’s mother-in-law — the BJP chief is married to her daughter, Mallika Banerjee.