It was 'house full' at the Central Hall of Parliament today. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had been adjourned up to 2 pm, which was probably why there was time enough for MPs to chat. Interestingly, Anurag Thakur of the BJP sat with Rajeev Shukla of the Congress. Jairam Ramesh butted in and jokingly said that when the two are together they only discuss IPL or BCCI. To this Thakur said that they wanted to convert IPL into BPL. Joining them in the banter were Deepender Singh Hooda and Gaurav Gogoi.


Interestingly, NCP chief Sharad Pawar was the only tall leader in the Central Hall who is seen in conversation with all MPs across political parties. His daughter Supirya Sule accompanied Pawar as he walked up to MP on each bench of the Central Hall. Praful Patel and Sule then sat in a corner where they were joined by BJP's Piyush Goyal and Ajay Sancheti and the language changed quickly to Marathi.


Then EAM Sushma Swaraj walked into the Central Hall and many BJP MPs went to her to touch her feet. Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman made an appearance at that point -- her first in nearly a year in Central Hall. She was seen talking to AIADMK MPs in Tamil.


The PM during his first council of ministers meeting mandated that junior ministers should not be seen in Central Hall as they have to attend their offices and not seen to be wasting time chatting or snacking in Parliament. The order has been followed, it seems.