Hours after Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu had a meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on the Goods and Service Tax Bill, the Congress said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was not serious about passing it. Naidu on Thursday had said the BJP would consider and comply with Congress' conditions on the Bill and said they would even consider calling for an early Budget session to pass it. But hours later, Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said the BJP is not ready to compromise on the key legislation.

Sibal called the BJP move “all optics”, and said there was nothing substantial that happened. He also claimed the majority party did not put anything down on paper. Sibal has stated that there is “no deadlock” from the side of the Congress and the delay in passing the Bill is solely due to “obduracy [unwillingness to change] from the BJP”.

This was the second meeting the BJP has held with Sonia Gandhi to reach out on the GST Bill. The Bill was not passed during the winter session of Parliament, after opposition parties derailed all proceedings with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi being accused in the National Herald case. The continuing deadlock makes it unlikely that the Bill will be passed before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s personal deadline of April 1.