Union ministers and Congress members break bread at banquet hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee

NEW DELHI: Union ministers and senior Congress members left behind the impasse in Parliament on Saturday as they shared the table at a banquet hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee, who completed three years in office on July 25.

Cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj, along with Congress members Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, dug into Paneer Hazrat Mahal, Nishant Ganj Ki Jalfrezi, Hyderabadi Keema and Gulab ki Kheer, among other delicacies served at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Party patriarch L K Advani was among the senior BJP members in attendance, as were ministers Harsh Vardhan, Najma Heptullah and Kalraj Mishra. Trinamool Congress's Derek O'Brien and CPI's D Raja attended too.

Putting the acrimony of the last week behind for a while, BJP and Congress members exchanged smiles and pleasantries. Both Houses of Parliament did not transact any business in the last week, with opposition members, led by Congress, demanding Swaraj's resignation along with those of the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers over Lalitgate and Vyapam scam.

Earlier, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Rajnath released three books to mark the occasion. Two volumes comprising select speeches of President Mukherjee, a book on the President's Bodyguard, and one on visitors to the Rashtrapati Bhavan called the 'Abode under the Dome'. Speaking on the occasion Ansari said the books encompassed experiences of five decades of public life and three years of presidency. Rajnath also lauded Mukherjee for upholding the "glory of Rashtrapati Bhavan".