Pranab misses parliament photo session

New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) The absence of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday from a group photo session of parliamentarians here surprised many.

A source said Mukherjee's staff, in the past 10 days, somehow missed the message carried in the bulletins routinely sent to the minister's residence.

However, as soon Mukherjee's absence was noticed, an attempt was made to reach out to him by phone, said the source.

But the photo session, held to mark 60 years of parliament's first sitting, could not be delayed as President Pratibha Patil had arrived and the protocol had to be followed, said the source.

Several other ministers too could not make it to the photo session and later blamed lack of communication from the Lok Sabha Secretariat for it.

But a source in the secretariat said all the members of parliament were intimated about the May 16 photo session.