JOIN USCong to discuss TMC, MSP in Parliament Winter Session strategy meet on Thursday
Senior leaders of Congress will meet on Thursday evening to chalk out the strategy for the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament and finalise the efforts to build a consensus among Opposition parties to take on the Narendra Modi government.
Party chief Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting that will be attended by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, among others.
The meeting will discuss floor management, coordination with other Opposition parties and issues to be taken up even as questions about taking Trinamool Congress on board continues to divide the leaders.
While one section of leaders said there will be no floor coordination with the Trinamool Congress, which has been poaching on Congress leaders, the others are arguing that the party only had floor coordination in Parliament, which should continue, and never had an alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
The group in favour of involving Trinamool point out that though the Congress do not involve AAP in joint Opposition programmes outside Parliament, the party is always involving the Arvind Kejriwal-led party in Parliament.
Mamata, who has been in Delhi for the past three days, has not scheduled a meeting with Sonia this time as she used to do during her previous trips. Increasing aggression on the part of Trinamool in poaching party leaders has created bad vibes between both parties.
Asked about Trinamool, a senior Congress leader told DH that any party would try to increase its area of influence and every party has a right to do so. "The point is one should be able to keep its people intact," the leader said.
The meeting would discuss a way out on this issue, sources said. It will also finalise a strategy on issues to be raised during the session, including audit of Covid-19 work, compensation for families of farmers who died during the protests, legal backing for Minimum Support Price and repeal of farm laws, price rise, Pegasus, Rafale and security situation, particularly on India-China borders.
In the Monsoon Session, Congress along with other Opposition parties had stalled Parliament over the use of Israeli spyware Pegasus on Opposition leaders, activists, journalists and those holding Constitutional posts, including a Supreme Court judge.
The meeting may also discuss the possible fall-out of senior MP Manish Tewari's remarks in his yet-to-be-released book that the UPA government should have attacked Pakistan after 26/11 Mumbai attack.
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