Defying the party's decision to boycott George Fernandes in Parliament, at least four Congress members in the Lok Sabha on Thursday refused to walk out when the defence minister rose to reply to a calling attention motion on frequent crashes of MiG fighter aircraft.

Congress member Jagmeet Singh Brar tabled the motion. It was quite an embarrassing situation for the party as he, along with K P Singh Deo, Laxman Singh and Vilas Muttemwar, chose to stay on to listen to Fernandes.

Some other Congress MPs, including Avtar Singh Bhadana and Ranee Narah, quietly approached them to walk out of the House, but they seemed to ignore the advice, a move welcomed by National Democratic Alliance members.

After the defence minister read out the calling attention statement, Muttemwar and Singh Deo left the House, but Brar and Laxman Singh stayed on.

Left parties as well as Rashtriya Janata Dal members too had joined the walkout, in keeping with their decision to boycott Fernandes in Parliament over the Tehelka expose.

While complimenting the defiant members, Samata Party member Prabhunath Singh threatened to raise the issue of alleged smuggling of antiques to Italy if the Congress persisted with its campaign to target his party leader.

Later, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said there was no need to further fuel the fire now that at least some Congress members were relenting on the issue as could be seen by the presence of some members.

PTI