The reason: The government's poor floor management coupled with warring factions of different political parties including the ruling BJP.

As a result, the government is left with no alternative but to re-promulgate the ordinance on companies buyback and sit like a lame duck on the other two measures till the budget session of parliament in February.

It was nothing short of fiasco in the case of the patents bill which could not be passed in the Lok Sabha for sheer lack of quorum in the house. There were not enough ruling party MPs to steer the bill through. Had the parliamentary affairs ministry taken its task of floor management seriously, the embarrassment could have been avoided.

The Rajya Sabha had passed the patents bill amid much troublewith the Congress party lending its helping hand. The least the opposition Congress expected from the government was to keep its own flock of party MPs together to ensure its passage.

The companies bill became a casualty of the ruckus the Lok Sabha witnessed on issues like the Vananchal bill. So much of heat was generated on the Vananchal issue that the companies bill could not be taken up for final passage.

Even some diehard BJP supporters admitted that it was a mistake on the part of the government to club major economic bills with sensitive issues like the Vananchal bill.

The government had left itself with no lee way to manoeuvre on the companies bill issue. Its calculation was that the Lok Sabha will pass it on Tuesday so that the Rajya Sabha could do so the next day. The calculation, however, went haywire.

On the insurance bill, there was trouble from day one, with both the BJP and the Congress divided vertically on issues like the extent of foreign equity in the joint venture. Swadeshi lobby inthe BJP had consistently opposed the bill.

The trouble was no less in the Congress front. Finally, however, it was resolved that the bill be sent to the standing committee of parliament. The BJP only aquiesced with no alternative before it.

The confusion, however, still persists with the speaker announcing that the bill would go to the joint select committee. Till Wednesday evening there was no news about the names of MPs in the joint select committee which would go into the IRA bill.

It transpires that both the Congress and the BJP are now quarreling over who will head the joint select committee. Would it be Manmohan Singh? Not all senior Congress MPs were in his favour. On its part, the BJP maintained that a ruling party MP should head the joint select committee.

It is learnt the initiative has now been left on the speaker who would take steps to resolve the issue.