A lunch meeting that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted for top BJP leaders with Telangana on the menu appeared to have had positive results with the government and the opposition party reaching a near consensus on the introduction of the controversial Telangana Bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The main opposition party had laid down some conditions for its introduction — that the House should be in order and that the concerns of the people of Telangana and Seemandhara should be addressed — even as it indicated that it planned to bring in some amendments, primarily related to the interests of Seemandhra.
Given the opposition of Seemandhra MPs, as was evident on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha with even Congress Ministers from the region storming the well of the House, the government is believed to have broached the issue of possible action against the obstreperous MPs at the lunch meeting between the Prime Minister and BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh on Wednesday.
The reading of UPA managers after the meeting is that the principal opposition party would not object if the Speaker decides to name the unruly MPs to order them out of the House.