Enthusiasm among elderly, first time voters in Jammu LS seat, 42.88 % voting till 1pm
An 86-year old Raj Dulari made sure to bring along her entire family to vote at a polling station in Peer Mitha of the Jammu city.
With barely a week left for the budget session to end, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Tuesday reached out to leaders of different political parties in an effort to end the logjam which has stalled proceedings for the last 16 days without any business being transacted.
Members belonging to TRS and AIADMK have been storming the well, raising slogans and waving placards, preventing the House from taking up the no-confidence motion moved by TDP and YSR Congress for the seventh consecutive day.
Since 5 March when the budget session resumed after a three-week break, Lok Sabha proceedings have been a washout due to protests by different parties over a variety of issues. Mahajan met leaders of eight political parties, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Jyotiraditya Scindia and KC Venugopal of the Congress, P Venugopal of AIADMK, Kalyan Bannerjee and Dinesh Trivedi of Trinamool Congress, Thota Narasimham of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy of YSR Congress and Bhartruhari Mahtab of BJD.
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The meetings went on for about two-and-a-half hours as the Speaker wanted to elicit the views of the members and also seek their cooperation in ensuring smooth functioning of the House in the remaining days of the budget session, sources said. “If the logjam persists, she may hold an all-party meeting,” a source said.
The Congress, sources said, wanted the House to first take up the notice for a no-confidence motion moved by the party against the government but was told that the notice for a similar motion given by Thota Narasimham of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is the first in the order of receipts.
The Congress notice is second followed by that of the YSR Congress, they said. The Speaker has also consulted parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar over efforts to break the deadlock.
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