BJP leadership upset with its MPs for skipping parliamentary panel meetings

The BJP leadership is irked over the absence of its MPs from meetings of parliamentary panels.

Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkiah Naidu has given a dressing down to party MPs who have skipped meetings of parliamentary standing committees of which they are members, at the BJP's Tuesday morning parliamentary party meeting. He has warned that the party could change members whose attendance was less than 50 per cent, according to sources.

He said the absenteeism of party members would end up in the BJP's viewpoint not reflecting as strongly as that of the Opposition in the final report. Naidu said the absence of BJP members in the meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways led to that committee coming up with a report that was adverse about the government. He complained that the absenteeism of members meant that there was either nobody from the BJP to put forth the government's version or contest the criticism from Opposition members.

Meanwhile, the BJP has dropped around a dozen members from parliamentary panels like