The long discussions and voting on the Land Bill that went on till late night in the Lok Sabha because of over 400 amendments may have provided food for thought to many parliamentarians,but it must have provided thought for food to some BJP MPs. BJP chief Rajnath Singh was scheduled to host a dinner for party MPs at 7:30 pm. Rajnath,who initiated the discussion,left early,leaving his MPs to cast their final vote on the legislation. His dinner guests remained stuck in the Lok Sabha till 10 pm. Between Friends The BJP had to choose between two prospective allies during elections for the two vacant seats in both the 2G Joint Parliamentary Committee and the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday. The party had assured both the AIADMK and TMC of its support. But,after the government managed to get nominated MP Ashok Ganguly and a Congress member in the JPC,the BJP was left with the option of supporting either the AIADMK or the TMC candidate in the PAC. The party opted for AIADMK candidate V Maitreyan,who got 69 votes despite having just seven members in the House,reflecting the support from the Left. Congress candidate Ashwani Kumar was elected to the PAC with 78 votes,while TMCs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy polled just 42 votes. Alone in House With the BJP no longer an ally and the Congress still a prospective ally,JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav found himself isolated in the Lok Sabha when his party MPs sought the governments response on the protests by Asaram Bapus followers at his residence. With both the BJP members and the treasury benches looking the other way,it was left to Yadav to pacify his party members,saying that the issue would be raised on Friday. Incidentally,BJP members were learnt to have been instructed not to speak in favour of Asaram. Mixed Signals Having severed its alliance with the Congress on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue a few months back,the DMK appears to be doing a rethink. Or so it seems,considering that it disregarded A Raja and chose not to nominate any party member for the vacancy in the 2G JPC following the retirement of party MP Tiruchi Siva. Sources said there was a division in the DMK on nominating a member to the panel. Raja,an accused in the 2G case,wanted a party member to replace Siva,a move which would deny a majority to the ruling dispensation. Tracking Progress The Railways has suddenly woken up to the potential benefits of the Prime Minister-led Cabinet Committee on Investment. Recently,after the ministry took up some long-pending projects with the CCIs Project Monitoring Group,the ministries concerned quickly cleared the projects,including the Bhairabi-Sairang and Lumding-Silchar lines. The ministry has now instructed all its directorates to flag all pending projects before the CCI.
