Most ministers abstain on the last day of Lok Sabha

The shadow of the imminent end of the 14th Lok Sabha hung high in the House on Thursday. There were few members in the House and for some time the only Minister present was Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay. Antulay has already declared that he will not contest Lok Sabha polls anymore.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee also told members that he would not be the stickler for rules today as he asked one Minister to lay a paper in the House listed in the name of another,who was absent.

Apparently busy ahead of the next polls,several Ministers,who were to lay papers,were absent on Thursday. Praful Patel laid papers listed in the name of Sharad Pawar while Kanti Singh did the job for Ambika Soni.

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Chandrashekhar Sahu stood in place of B K Handique as also Suryakanta Patil.

TDP leader K Yerrannaidu was heard remarking after the Question Hour that the last supplementary of the Zero Hour of the 14th Lok Sabha has been asked by him.