Thiruvananthapuram, July 24 - The Kerala assembly united Friday to condemn ostentatious weddings and the practice of dowry, prompting Social Welfare Minister P.K. Sreemathy to declare that the government may call an all party meeting as the first step towards a law on the issue.

About 45 minutes of the hour-long question hour was devoted to discussions on the issue with all parties agreeing that something needed to be done. Speaker K. Radhakrishnan set the tone at the beginning when he said that every member who wished to ask a question would be allowed.

'As the first step to this we will in two months call a special meeting of religious leaders, social activists and others to discuss this,' said Sreemathy, adding that he would look into the social evils with utmost seriousness.

K.K. Shaju from the Janathiyapathiya Samrakshsna Samithi, an ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front, said members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) used to be role models when it came to conducting marriages without any fanfare.

'But today that is a thing of the past and even these party activists are conducting lavish marriage ceremonies,' said Shaju, a top youth leader of the CPI-M.