Monday, May 2 2005 09:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which has been boycotting Parliament, last night (May 1, 2005) decided to meet today (May 2, 2005) to take a final decision whether to continue with the boycott or not.

"There was a detailed discussion on the three-day long boycott of Parliament by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA Opposition. But a decision in this regard has been postponed till tomorrow," BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters yesterday after a meeting of the NDA.

She said the decision was postponed also due to the reason that the NDA chairperson, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is not in Delhi at present.

The NDA leaders also felt that there was a need for wider consultation with NDA Members of Parliament with regard to ending the boycott or not.

NDA sources said at last night's over 90-minute meeting of alliance leaders the leaders were divided whether to continue the three-day boycott protesting the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's "attitude" towards the Opposition and demanding resignation of Railway Minister Laloo Prasad against whom charges were framed in a Jharkhand court in a fodder scam case.

While some leaders, including those of BJP, were in favour of continuing the boycott till the Government gives some assurance on their demands, others said boycott of voting on finance Bill could send a wrong message to the people at large.

They felt that having made a symbolic protest, the alliance should not be seen as "wasting public exchequer" and the precious time of Parliament by not taking part in the democratic process, sources said.

With the meeting failing to hammer out a solution to the issue, the leaders decided to take "feed-back" from their MPs on the boycott and take a final decision at the Parliamentary party meeting to be presided by former Prime Minister and NDA chairman Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

For the record, BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters, "There was a detailed discussion by the NDA leaders on the boycott of Parliament but wider consultations among constituents of the alliance were necessary and a decision in this regard has been postponed till tomorrow".

Sushma Swaraj said it was felt at the meeting that there should be a wider consultation among NDA members of Parliament on the issue as they have been part of the decision to boycott it, Swaraj said adding that keeping this in view a final decision has been left for today's NDA Parliamentary Party meeting.

Asked if NDA was considering to lift the boycott and attend Parliament, Swaraj said "it all depends upon the mood of the MPs".

NDA convenor George Fernandes said the meeting presided by leader of the Opposition L K Advani, discussed the prevailing political situation but a final decision would be taken in the presence of NDA chairman Atal Bihari Vajpayee who could not attend last night's meeting as he was away in his Lok Sabha constituency in Lucknow.

Asked whether the Government had contacted Opposition during the three- day boycott, Swaraj said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh telephoned leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha L K Advani and Jaswant Singh and NDA chairman Vajpayee but nothing "solid or substantial" came out of the exercises.

Besides Advani, Fernandes and Swaraj, the meeting was attended by Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and V K Malhotra of BJP, Janata Dal United (JDU) leaders Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar and Akali Dal leader S S Dhindsa.

On Saturday (Apr 30, 2005), Malhotra had said NDA would not be giving a memorandum on amendments to the Finance Bill to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after last year's experience, as "we do not want to create an embarrassing situation again".

The amendments include tax relief on pension for old age persons upto Rs 20,000, for women upto Rs 5,000 and standard deduction for Government servants upto Rs 30,000. It would also demand withdrawal of Fringe Benefits Tax as also the tax on cash withdrawal from banks of upto Rs 10,000, he said.

The NDA had given a memorandum to the Prime Minister last year after having boycotted the budget session protesting the inclusion of "tainted" ministers in the Union Cabinet, which they alleged was not properly received by him.

Malhotra said it was surprising that none of the Congress members had protested against the tax on withdrawal of Rs 10,000 from banks.