An early end to Opposition boycott of Parliamentary Committees appeared to be in sight on Tuesday with a formula being hammered out at a meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and some of his cabinet colleagues had with the Leader of Opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani.
Soon after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad indicated that a formula was being worked out and a final decision on the issue would be known after a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance slated for this evening.
The Manmohan Singh-Advani meeting comes immediately after a breakfast meeting Advani had with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee who had expressed the hope that BJP-led opposition boycott of Parliamentary Committees would end and said he would be constituting the Committees shortly.
"I feel an end of the move by the opposition in view of the appeal I made to Leader of the Opposition L K Advani," Chatterjee told reporters after a 25-minute meeting with Advani at the Speaker's residence.
Advani, however, left immediately after the breakfast without talking to the media.
The meeting follows the letter Chatterjee had written to Advani inviting him for breakfast today to sort out the issue.
Among those present at the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were Home Minister Shivraj V Patil and Defence Minister and Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee as also Azad.