Pranab Mukherjee called BJP senior officials after thy felt offended at Rashtrapathi Bhavan over the poor seating arrangements in the reception for the Independence Day celebrations. He had told the senior BJP officials over the telephone talking to LK Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj that he would ensure that his office would make sure that such unhappy incident would not repeat in the future. He had also promised to seek advises from the opposition party while discussing the seating arrangements.

The BJP leaders Mr Advani, Swaraj and others were made to stand at a side in an enclosure while Sonia Gandhi had been treated with great respect as she found her seat beside Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh.

Advani had faced such an incident before too during Hamid Ansari's swearing-in ceremony this month where he was made to sit in the fourth row but was moved to first row only after protests from the party members. Sonia this time too had the chance to have a seat in the first row along with the Prime Minister.

(AW- Anil)