The government and the BJP are heading for another face-off over constitution of selection panel for Lokpal, with the opposition party rejecting Prime Minister's proposal to appoint senior lawyer P P Rao as member and sought President's intervention on it.
In a turn of events reminiscent to BJP's opposition to the appointment of P J Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner two years ago, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj refused to back the government nominee in the category of eminent jurist in the Lokpal panel and registered her dissent during the proceedings of the meeting last night,sources said.
Swaraj has now sought time from President Pranab Mukherjee for a meeting, pleading for his intervention to bring about unanimity in the appointment of the panel member.
The Leader of Opposition was outvoted with three votes going in favour of the government nominee in the meeting at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence to select the fifth member of the panel, they said.
She had opposed Rao's name, saying he has been a "Congress loyalist" and instead proposed the name of former Attorney General K Parasaran, in a bid to bring about unanimity among the panel members.
She demanded that the panel should be "free from such people" and said it should have "apolitical people" and should not be made a "captive body", according to the sources.
Swaraj had said that since this is the first time the anti-corruption ombudsman was being appointed in the country, there should be unanimity on the appointments.
Since the Prime Minister did not approve Parasaran's name, she suggested the names of eminent jurists Soli Sorabjee and Harish Salve for the key panel and even suggested deferring the meeting by a day or two to broadbase the panel of names put forth by the government.
She said seven names were put forth before the panel chaired by the Prime Minister and having Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Chief Justice of India representative Supreme Court judge H L Dattu besides herself as its members.
