UP Opp too ‘pre-occupied’ to turn up for all-party meet

UP Opposition leaders, who have served no-trust notices against Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi, today boycotted the all-party meeting called by him to discuss security and other issues. All leaders, including SP’s Azam Khan, RKP’s Kalyan Sigh and Congress’ Pramod Tiwari, cited ‘‘pre-occupation’’ as the reason.

CM Mayawati has also called an all-party meeting tomorrow on how to conduct House proceedings smoothly. Opposition parties are likely to boycott that meeting too. For today’s meeting, Tiwari had asked them to send their representatives if they couldn’t come. But that too didn’t happen. An all-party meeting was also convened on February 24 but in the absence of Opposition leaders it was cancelled.

The meeting, attended by leaders of the ruling parties, finalised security arrangements for the House and deferred the decision on the proposal to raise the Vidhayak Nidhi Fund and other facilities for the legislators.