Rajya Sabha Chairman walks out of Business Advisory Committee meet

Rajya Sabha Chairman walks out of meeting amid disagreements over EPIC card debate, leading to a standoff between rival members.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar walked out of a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) on Friday (March 28, 2025), with House sources saying that a "lack of decorum" was the reason, but Opposition members claimed he left midway due to sharp differences between them and ruling MPs on issues to be taken up.

According to an opposition leader, the Chairman walked out due to disagreements between ruling and opposition members over the demand for a discussion on "duplicate" voter id (EPIC) numbers, and sending bills for scrutiny by parliamentary committees.

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Rajya Sabha sources, however, insisted the EPIC (Electors Photo Identification Card) issue was not discussed. They said Dhankhar decided to walkout as the government and opposition members refused to budge from their respective position on these issues.

The BAC meeting was called to decide the business for the Upper House for the coming week.

According to the senior opposition leader quoted above, their MPs wanted the government to fix the time for debates on issues like EPIC cards, the Manipur situation abd scrutiny of bills. Opposition leaders insisted they are giving notices everyday for discussions on different issues, however, no time was being allotted for those.

The opposition MPs stressed that while they supported government business, the issues they are seeking to discuss are not being listed, leading to a standoff between the rival members.