Cracks have surfaced in the Opposition ranks in the middle of Parliament’s monsoon session with a section of regional parties seeking to keep a distance from the Congress by organising joint protests and strategising together on issues.
On Thursday, eight regional parties held a joint protest near Gandhi Statue in Parliament House charging the Centre with not paying GST dues while the Congress and four other parties knocked the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s doors against Delhi Police’s investigations in the riots in the national capital this February.
The Congress held a protest on its own against three contentious Bills on the agriculture sector too.
Interestingly, all Opposition parties are on the same page on these three issues but are not willing to come on a common platform.
Congress’ Ahmed Patel, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, DMK’s Kanimozhi and RJD’s Manoj K Jha met President Ram Nath Kovind at around 12:30 pm to submit a memorandum against the Delhi Police, accusing it of working under the directions of Home Minister Amit Shah to target anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters and implicate them in the riots cases.
At 2 pm, eight regional parties— Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, RJD, Shiv Sena, TRS, AAP and NCP— held the protest against the Centre on GST in which the Congress was not invited. RJD and DMK were part of both the initiatives.
One of the main drivers of the GST protest, the Trinamool Congress confirmed that the Congress was not invited to the protest and said that it cannot act like a “big brother” and other parties cannot follow their “we will do and you follow” attitude.
Some parties like Samajwadi Party, whose chief Akhilesh Yadav was present in the protest, and TRS were also not comfortable with joining hands with the Congress.
“It is increasingly becoming clear to us that in Parliament, the regional parties are finding it easier to coordinate with each other to strategise. The Congress can no longer decide the subject and then the dosage of Opposition strategy. They cannot do something in the states and seek support in Parliament,” O’Brien said.
Asked why the Congress was not invited, the Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha leader shot back, “Was Samajwadi Party, TRS or AAP invited to a meeting chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi?”
O’Brien and TMC's Chief Whip in Lok Sabha Kalyan Banerjee spoke about Congress’ “secret arrangement with BJP”, amid the Congress appointing Mamata-critic Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who prefers an alliance with the Left in the state, as its state chief.
O’Brien said individuals are not important but Trinamool was not happy with the choice.