Parties pad for RS polls, protests continue to disrupt Budget session

Congress President Rahul Gandhi joined Telugu Desam Party at Jantar Mantar, where its members were staging a protest to demand special status for Andhra Pradesh

Parliament failed to conduct any business on Tuesday, the second consecutive day in the second part of the Budget session, as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition, led by the Congress, continued to trade barbs on the Punjab National Bank scam. Outside the Houses, confabulations over the coming Rajya Sabha elections and the possibility of a Third Front or “federal front” marked the day.

Celebrating success in Tripura, Prime Minister Narenda Modi told the parliamentary party that it was an “ideological victory”. Slogans of “Jeet hamari jaari hai, ab Karnataka ki bari hai