Strictly non-veg

Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu asked for non-vegetarian food to be served along with vegetarian fare at the all-party meeting on the eve of the winter session of Parliament. This surprised some of the guests, given the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) image as a party of vegetarians.

But Naidu, as he tells his friends, is uncompromising about his dietary habits. In the 1990s, after taking over as the president of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh, he had shocked some of his office-bearers by asking them to serve non-vegetarian dishes at the first executive meeting of the party in the state.

People handling the logistics had organised for the caterer to prepare non-vegetarian food for 35 state executive members and vegetarian for 65 members. But Naidu asked them to reverse the numbers and prepare non-vegetarian dishes for 65 guests.

At the meeting, it was discovered that 92 of the 108 state executive members were non-vegetarians. Naidu is also fond of recounting how former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when he was healthier, would relish the fresh prawns Naidu would get for him from Andhra Pradesh.