Motley mix of frontbenchers at Parliament's 60th anniversary bash

At the Central Hall of parliament, where President Pratibha Patil briefly addressed members of the two Houses on Sunday on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, it was interesting to see who sat where, and with whom.

Former president APJ Abdul Kalam sat on the same seat along with minister for parliamentary affairs Pawan Bansal and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. 

Former speaker Somnath Chatterjee sat in the first row at the far end along with a pale Farooq Abdullah, minister for non-conventional energy and prime minister’s wife Gurusharan Kaur.

BJP leader LK Advani sat next to Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and  party MP Shailendra Kumar. Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jailtley, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and finance minister and leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee sat together, while home minister P Chidambaram, defence minister AK Antony were together.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi sat in the last row, while Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit sat in the fourth row at the left end of the Central Hall.

There was a Shiv Kumar Sharma’s santoor recital after brief speeches by Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, vice president and chairman of Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari and prime minister Manmohan Singh.