Maya targets Ansari for disruptions in RS

In an extremely unusual incident, BSP chief Mayawati lashed out at Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari Wednesday, blaming him for the disorder in the House which is preventing the Bill providing reservations for SCs and STs in promotions from being passed.

BSP MPs disrupted the House twice over the issue before it was adjourned for the day. They also disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha.

Mayawati entered the House around 11.30 am and soon directed her anger at the chair, blaming Ansari for the Upper House not functioning smoothly after noon. She also criticised the chairman for not being present in the House after Question Hour. Her remarks were later expunged from the records.

Ansari told the BSP chief it was the responsibility of everyone to ensure the House functioned smoothly. But the BSP chief was not willing to calm down and prodded her MPs to raise slogans against the government.

While the chairman seemed to take Mayawati's outburst in his stride in the House, he is learnt to have expressed his frustration later when leaders of other parties called on him in his chamber. "I am upset, it will be difficult to work in such a situation," he is believed to have said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also called Ansari to express his distress over the incident, it is learnt.

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