Jan Lokpal Bill: Parliament may convey "sense" of House on Lokpal issue

NEW DELHI: In fast-paced developments, government now appears to be veering towards Parliament conveying its "sense" on the Lokpal Bill, which could pave the way for Anna Hazare to give up his fast.

As the two Houses of Parliament took up an extraordinary debate, government took into account some voices opposing Hazare's proposals and are considering conveying the sense of Parliament to the Gandhian.

Government sources said that a resolution could lead to a fractured vote as several parties were critical of Hazare's proposals on the Lokpal issue.

Conveying the sense of the House could be a better way, a source said adding that a division, if sought while adopting a resolution could lead to a fractured verdict.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee held several rounds of consultations with his senior colleagues including Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid, Pawan Bansal as also with Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and BJP veteran L K Advani.

Meanwhile, the government conveyed it to Team Anna that Parliament would convey the sense of the House which could be read out by the presiding officers.

Team Anna members Prashant Bhushan, Medha Patkar and Manish Sisodia were camping at Khurshid's residence and they were kept in loop on the developments in Parliament.

Hazare had demanded that the Parliament should accept the three key demands of the civil society for him to end the fast.