New Delhi, April 29
Faced with division within, the NDA has decided to call a meeting of NDA MPs on Monday morning to decide on whether or not to boycott Parliament further.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of NDA leaders, chaired by senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh, in the wake of an overwhelming view that the NDA should make its presence felt in the House when the important Finance Bill comes for debate and passage on Monday.

The meeting, to be chaired by NDA Chairperson and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will be held in Parliament Annexe on Monday.

Ahead of the NDA MPs' meeting, NDA leaders will be holding consultations at the residence of Mr L.K. Advani on Sunday.

According to NDA sources, though the NDA leaders felt that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal had no meaning since the latter has struck to his position of not dropping Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, majority of them felt that the three-day boycott of Parliament had caused much-needed embarrassment to the government.

The NDA, including the TDP, had boycotted both Houses of Parliament and also all the committees attached to the two Houses for three days from April 27.

Justifying the three-day boycott of Parliament, BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesperson V K Malhotra told newspersons that "it is highly objectionable that the Prime Minister is justifying continuance of a charge-sheeted Minister in the cabinet citing wrong examples."

"It is the Prime Minister's prerogative to select his team of ministers. But, if we go by his logic, there was no bar on even inducting stamp paper scam accused Abdul Karim Telgi in the Cabinet, since there is no written law that the Ministry cannot be run by the person sitting in jail," Mr Malhotra said in a sarcastic manner.

"Instead of trying to justify continuation of Mr Yadav in his Cabinet, he should openly state the UPA's compulsion that is if he (Mr Yadav) is dropped then the UPA Government will fall," Mr Malhotra said.