Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today hosted a lunch for Union ministers and floor leaders of various parties in Parliament during which several issues, including the Centre's initiative to restart the frozen political dialogue in J&K, were discussed over Andhra delicacies.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha P J Kurien, over 45 Union ministers, and about 20 floor leaders of opposition and other parties in both the Houses of Parliament attended the function.
The vice president is also ex-officio chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
The government's decision to initiate dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir and the appointment of former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma as the interlocutor was discussed by leaders of various parties, some of those who attended the lunch said.
The leaders discussed the issue in the presence of Naidu and Home Minister Rajnath Singh as they enjoyed a range of Andhra delicacies, including prawn fry, Nellore fish curry, Andhra Chicken and host of 'chutney' and paper sweets, they added.
The ministers who attended the event included Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Ram Vilas Paswan, Smriti Irani, Radha Mohan Singh, Ashok Gajapati Raju, Anant Geete, Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal, Harsimrat Kaur, Ramdas Athawale, Hardeep Singh Puri and Anupriya Patel.
Opposition leaders and floor leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma (Congress), Derek O'Brien (TMC), P Karunakaran (CPM), D Raja (CPI), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Naresh Gujral (SAD), Navneet Krishnan (AIADMK), Kanimozhi (DMK), Thota Narasimham (TDP) and M Rajamohan Reddy (YSRCP).
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