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<b>Protocol goes for a toss as Pratibha takes oath </b>
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
Advani pushed to fourth row
Others also humiliated

Conventional protocol went for a six in Parliament during President Pratibha Patil's oath-taking ceremony. The most glaring of it was the sight of Leader of Opposition LK Advani sitting in the fourth row behind officials and Chief Ministers.

<b>"This is breach of parliamentary protocol and there is no precedence like this," former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons. </b>

<b>The front row in the Central Hall of Parliament was occupied by Sonia Gandhi along with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary AB Bardhan along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee</b>.

<b>While Yechury is the first time MP in Rajya Sabha, Bardhan is not even a member of any House.</b>

Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar and Lalu Yadav, who were first seated in the second row, later crossed over to the first row.

<b>Even Election Commissioner Navin Chawla was seated ahead of BJP senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad. </b>

<b>Senior parliamentarians like Najma Heptullah and SP leader Amar Singh were seated in the last rows, even Rahul Gandhi, the first time MP in the Lok Sabha, was seated ahead of the two. </b>

Strangely, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was seated next to former Bihar Governor Buta Singh who dissolved the State Assembly when Nitish was about to stake claim for Government formation.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat makes the sitting arrangements on instructions from the Government.

<b>"Two BJP leaders, Vajpayee and Rajnath Singh, were already sitting in the first row and we were instructed to make place for the allies of the Government along with the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson," </b>a Lok Sabha Secretariat official told The Pioneer.

While all the leaders were waiting for the swearing-in ceremony to begin, UP Chief Minister Mayawati stole the show and she moved in different corners of the Hall greeting and accepting congratulations from MPs across party lines. Mayawati spent considerable time with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi while many others were just passing by her.

Interestingly, while Mayawati talked to Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh separately, Railway Minister Lalu Yadav standing beside them was completely ignored by the UP Chief Minister, even though Lalu tried to greet her.
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