Sonia wants maximum presence of Cong MPs

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked the partys floor managers in Lok Sabha to ensure the maximum presence of MPs in the House

With a heavy legislative agenda including the National Food Security Bill lined up for Monsoon session of Parliament which began today,Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked the partys floor managers in Lok Sabha to ensure the maximum presence of MPs in the House.

Gandhi conveyed this to the party whips when they met her today,sources said. The Congress president is learnt to have mentioned that even the partys ministers are absent at times.

She told the whips that their job is particularly important at times when even ministers are not present in the House,sources said. Gandhi had many a time in the past pulled up party MPs for poor attendance in both Houses of Parliament.

The Congress president herself has attended less than 50 per cent of the sittings in the House. An analysis of the attendance of the members,as reported by The Indian Express on Monday,show that Gandhi has a 48 per cent attendance record while her son and Congress vice president attended 135 of 314 sittings. Gandhi met newly-appointed chief whip Sandeep Dikshit and Madhu Goud Yakshi,who has been made the Deputy Chief Whip. The new whips are Ijayraj Singh from Rajasthan,R Dhruvnarayan from Karnataka and Ravneet Singh Bittoo from Punjab.

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