Speaker Meira Kumar to meet non-BJP Oppn leaders

In a fresh bid to end the Parliament deadlock, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will on Friday meet leaders of the Left Front and other non-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition parties.

Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Janata Dal - United chief Sharad Yadav are among those who will attend the meeting.

On Thursday, the Speaker met BJP leaders but failed to bridge the differences as they insisted on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G scam.

The luncheon meeting was attended by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and senior BJP leader LK Advani.

At the two-hour meeting, both the government and the Opposition leaders agreed that the logjam was a matter of concern, but had divergent views on ending it.

The BJP leaders made it clear that they would accept nothing less than a JPC probe into the scam.

The Speaker, however, was hopeful that the deadlock would end before the next session of Parliament.

"Both sides are very keen that the next session of Parliament should run in order. I am very optimistic on how the events will unfold," she said.

Former telecom minister A Raja was forced to resign in November under considerable pressure from the Congress, which continues to be attacked in Parliament by the Opposition on corruption charges.

The 2G-spectrum allocation has reportedly caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores to the government, the comptroller and auditor general of India has stated in a report.