Congress to ask Opposition to target BJP over key issues in Winter Session of Parliament

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who will continue as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, will reach out to Opposition parties to build a consensus to take up economic distress, India-China border tension and attack on institutions as priority issues during the Winter Session of Parliament.

The party has also decided to oppose three Bills, which the government intends to pass in this session, “in its present form”. These are The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, The Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2022.

The identification of the major issues was done at a meeting of Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group, a day ahead of the party's Steering Committee meeting that will decide on the date and venue of the Plenary Session to ratify Kharge’s election as president.

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At the meeting chaired by Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, leaders like Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal, Manish Tewari and Manickam Tagore attended.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said that the party has identified three “major” issues to be taken up on priority in Parliament and for this, Kharge will speak to Opposition leaders to build a consensus in the next two-three days.

Asked whether the issue of Kharge’s replacement as Leader of Opposition to adhere to one man, one post policy was discussed, Ramesh answered in the negative and said that Sonia as CPP chairperson will take a decision on that.

“Sonia-ji is the CPP chairperson and Kharge-ji is the party president. This issue will not be discussed in such a panel. Whatever decision has to be taken, it will be taken by Sonia-ji. Kharge-ji is talking to Opposition leaders not just as party president but as Leader of Opposition too,” Ramesh told reporters.

He said the Congress will insist on a discussion on border tension with China and reminded that during the 1962 war, the issue was discussed in Parliament and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru responded to the debate. “What we are asking is a debate. We know the sensitivity of the subject. But BJP should not take the monopoly of patriotism,” he said.

The party will pack in issues like unemployment, declining rupee against dollar, price rise and farmers’ demand for law guaranteeing MSP among others when it wants a debate on the country’s economy. Other issues that are likely to be raised are the hacking of the AIIMS server, Morbi tragedy, air pollution and targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits.

Ramesh also said the party will raise the demand for conducting Caste Census, an issue on which the ruling BJP is “silent”. The Congress will also push for guaranteeing 10% reservation for economically weaker sections in all sections of the society.