145;No singing in House146;

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has turned down the BJP8217;s request to allow 200 Muslims from its minority cell to sing Vande Mataram in front of Mahatma Gandhi8217;s statue in the Parliament compound. 8220;The permission is not forthcoming,8221; BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.

The party, which announced Vande Mataram as its key election issue in UP, had last week spelled out plans to hold a rendition of the national song by 200 Muslims in the Parliament complex. The party leadership also made a written request to the Speaker to allow it to hold the event.

8220;Since the permission is not forthcoming, we have dropped the plan,8221; Prasad said.