Sonia Gandhi wants maximum presence of Congress MPs in monsoon session

With a number of important bills including Food Security ordinance on the agenda of Parliament, Congress` Sonia Gandhi asked party managers to ensure presence of maximum MPs of the party in the House.

New Delhi: With a number of important bills including Food Security ordinance on the agenda of Parliament, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday asked party managers to ensure the presence of maximum MPs of the party in the House. Gandhi conveyed this to the party whips in the Lok Sabha during a brief meeting today, the opening day of the monsoon session of Parliament.

She told the whips that their job is particularly important at times when even ministers are not present in the House, party sources said. Gandhi said this when party spokesman Sandip Dikshit, who has been elevated to be the Chief Whip of the party in the lower House, met her along with colleagues. Madhu Goud Yakshi, who represents Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, 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. Earlier Girija Vyas was the Chief Whip and Rani Narah and Sandip Dikshit were Deputy Chief Whips. Vyas and Narah have been made ministers recently. Meanwhile, the ordinance on the Food Security bill, which is being projected as the "most important" legislation in the session by the ruling party, is expected to brought up for consideration on Wednesday. PTI