It was full house in Parliament today.

In the Central Hall of Parliament, lawmakers across parties, greeted each other warmly, often hugged and chatted even as in another room in Parliament House, Vice Presidential candidates, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Venkaiah Naidu filed their nominations separately.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen walking across Central Hall in the Lok Sabha to Chamber # 74 in the Rajya Sabha where Naidu filed his nomination papers as the NDA candidate. Naidu, walking close behind the Prime Minister, met almost all the MPs from both the treasury and the opposition benches.

In the Central Hall, the PM shook hands with President of Karnataka's state BJP unit BS Yeddyurappa and spent a few seconds talking to him, as opposed to simply waving or folding his hands in a Namaste to other MPs.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs have put together a farewell card for President Pranab Mukherjee who demits office next week. The card will be handed over to Pranab Mukherjee on the evening of July 23 in the Central Hall. A special desk is now being set up in Central Hall and to ensure that each MP signs this farewell card, the move is being coordinated by a senior official of the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

Leader of Opposition, Mallikarjuna Kharge, entered the Lok Sabha and later, the Central Hall, with a walking stick. Kharge has been given special permission from the Speaker since sticks are not permitted in the House. Kharge, has just undergone knee surgery and needs a stick for support . The witty Kharge told MPs that others will have to adjust to his pace, or wait, as he is a 'weighty' person.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar was seen talking in Marathi with Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on  Gopalkrishna Gandhi's candidature. AIADMK MPs belonging to both the Edappadi Palaniswami and the O Panneerselvam factions seemed friendly with each other and were heard talking about the future of Tamil Nadu politics.

Few Congress MPs were seen in Central Hall, but seemingly lacked the enthusiasm of their colleagues. They were huddled in a corner of the huge room and kept to themselves.

Karnataka BJP MPs BS Yeddyurappa, Shobha Karandlaje, Prahlad Joshi  and Union Minister Ananth Kumar were seen talking about Karnataka politics. They were standing around banners which read ban PFI (Popular Front of India), KFD (Karnataka Forum for Dignity) and Save Karnataka.

Most of the Karnataka MPs took one banner each before they went into the Lok Sabha. Central Hall has a special enclosure for those Members of Parliament who are smokers.  This corner was full of MPs some of who are chain smokers. Notable among them were CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and T K Rangarajan, Civil Aviation Minister Gajapati Raju and TMC's  Sugata Roy.