New Delhi, May 18: A lizard died in the Rajya Sabha today giving MPs some foul-smelling minutes, but it was the much maligned house rat that got the bad press, at least initially.

The stench that had troubled the Upper House on May 10 returned today when the Treasury and Opposition benches were arguing on Telangana. For Alka Balram Kshatriya of the Congress, the smell was too much to ignore in the middle of a heated debate over statehood. Something was burning, she shouted.

P.J. Kurien, in the Chair today, did not take her seriously, which made the Congress MP quite upset. “Not everything should be reduced to a joke. There is a smell of something burning, and I am not kidding,” she told Kurien. The BJP MPs, till then seriously debating for statehood, began giggling.

But Renuka Chowdhary of the Congress now said she too smelt something foul.

Kurien adjourned the House for 15 minutes at 3.45pm. When the House reassembled, Renuka said she smelt “a dead rat”.

This started the next round of titters in the House. BJP MPs Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Prakash Javadekar suggested Renuka cross over and occupy the Opposition benches.

Renuka retorted that since BJP MPs have “ambitions” of moving over to the Treasury side, why don’t they join her and try to “find out the source of the smell”.

Kurien adjourned the House for 15 minutes again.

Renuka was heard suggesting to someone the use of activated carbon to neutralise the smell, but by then housekeeping staff were out looking for source of the stench.

One of them saw a dead lizard, fried to the bone, stuck to the electric grill of a fly repellent machine near the Treasury benches. “We immediately removed the machine from the House,” an attendant said.

Corpse and stench gone, the House got back to business, and the MPs quarrelled some more.

Both Houses are generally thinly attended on Friday afternoon — the time is kept aside for private members’ bills.

But the discussion on Telangana meant MPs from Andhra were in attendance today as were the BJP members because one of them — Javadekar — had moved the bill demanding the separate Telangana state.

Renuka kept interjecting when the BJP MPs spoke, prompting Rudy to tell the Chair that no member, irrespective of “size and height”, should be allowed to interrupt House proceedings.

Renuka, who is of ample girth and height, did not find the comment in good taste. She complained that the remark was a “derogatory” reference to her as a woman. The Chair expunged it.

But Renuka found a way to get back at the BJP.

Every time Javadekar rose to object to a Congress MP, Renuka shouted “hello, uncle” to stop him.

For the record, Javadekar is 61 years old, Renuka just three years younger.

Rudy also objected to Renuka reading a magazine in the House and cited rules of business and discipline. He demanded that the Chair take action against her.

Kurien, in jest, said it was music to his ears that BJP MPs had become conscientious enough to bother about House discipline.