Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge to meet Venkaiah Naidu to break deadlock in Rajya Sabha
On a day when like-minded parties took out a solidarity march against the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs, Congress President Sonia Gandhi took forward the theme of opposition unity by meeting top leaders.
Tuesday’s meeting at Ms Gandhi’s residence which was attended by leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is being interpreted as a clear message to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who recently announced that the UPA exists. Not there.
This is the first in a series of meetings that the Congress chief is planning to hold.
The meeting was attended by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, DMK leader TR Baalu and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut. NCP, DMK and NC are part of UPA. Shiv Sena is insisting on rebuilding the UPA by opening the doors for new members like itself.
It was also decided in the meeting that a fresh attempt would be made to break the deadlock in the Rajya Sabha and NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge would meet Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu.
two scenarios
Sources say it was a deliberate decision to keep the gathering in a small group for fear of poor optics. In the case of a large meeting, Ms. Banerjee would dominate the narrative, overpowering the actual meeting. “There will be two possible scenarios, one where we call her and she refuses, and another, where we don’t invite her. In both cases, it will be her presence or absence that will make headlines,” said Tuesday’s meeting. said one of the leaders who attended.
Shiv Sena and NCP were also deliberately clubbed together to ensure that there is no misunderstanding between the two Maharashtra allies.
fault lines
Earlier in the day, Congress, Shiv Sena, DMK, RJD, IUML, CPI(M) and CPI participated in the march to flag off the “illegal” suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs. The march exposed the flaws within the opposition. The Trinamool Congress led by Rahul Gandhi joined the opposition march, but within the House, they shunned the opposition.
The opposition had decided not to participate in the meeting held on Tuesday morning. The TMC has skipped all meetings, as it does not want to be seen as part of the Congress-led opposition. Going against the concurrence of the opposition, TMC chief whip Sukendu Shekhar Ray and the party’s Rajya Sabha member Nadeemul Haque spoke during Zero Hour, where members get an opportunity to raise issues of national importance.
TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien hit out at Congress in a cryptic tweet saying, “Happy. Some political parties have the ability to come up with genuine ideas for protest inside and outside Parliament, some political parties then put in a lot of effort to (and appropriate) those ideas. Really amusing. ,
opposition march
At around 12:30 pm, all the opposition leaders of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, including former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, gathered at the Gandhi statue in Parliament, where 12 suspended MPs have been staging a sit-in for the past 14 days. , Carrying placards declaring that if the suspension of 12 members cannot be revoked, they should also be suspended, the leaders marched to Vijay Chowk, a kilometer from Parliament. Others including TMC MPs Sugata Roy, Mausam Noor, Shantanu Sen and suspended MP Dola Sen took part in the march.
Speaking to the media at Vijay Chowk, Mr Gandhi pointed to the suspended MPs saying, “They are the symbols of democracy of this country. They are symbols of crushing the voice of the people of India. Now he has been suspended for two weeks. They are sitting outside. His voice is suppressed. They haven’t done anything wrong,” he said.
Despite protests, the government has refused to bow down. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said, “I call upon Congress members, other opposition members to express regret and come to the House.”
Though the opposition parties managed to hold their protest inside the House, outside the Parliament complex, their limited numbers are influencing the protest. In the post-lunch session, there were only 31 opposition MPs, with several members from each opposition party missing. Together, they could not raise their voice enough to stop the session and staged a walkout.