Parliament may witness uproar again

To decide the course of actions in Parliament, the leaders of the principal opposition party will hold a meeting with the representatives of its allies in the National Democratic Alliance just before the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha re-assemble on Monday after the weekend break.

Veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani on Sunday chaired a meeting of the party’s top leaders to discuss strategies in the wake of the CAG’s report, which rapped the Congress government in Delhi for irregularities in the CWG projects.

The party is likely to sharpen its attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his office, along with targeting the ruling Congress, which ruled out resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over the CAG report on the CWG mess.

“Several new corruption-related issues have come up in the last few days. All such issues were discussed to finalise the party’s strategy in Parliament. Top NDA leaders will meet on Monday morning to take a final decision on what will be the strategy in Parliament this week, senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP S S Ahluwalia, told reporters after the meeting.

The BJP on Sunday raised its pitch against Dixit and stepped up pressure on the Congress to ask her to step down citing the CAG report which, in a severe indictment of Dikshit, cited her “active involvement” in the grant of a work that incurred a loss of Rs 31.07 crore and slammed her government on some projects that led to a loss and escalation of costs of nearly Rs 500 crore.

The BJP activists on Sunday burnt effigies of Dikshit in several locations in Delhi demanding her immediate resignation. The party is also likely to step up the campaign with a rally at Ramlila Maidan next Tuesday, which will be followed by a “gherao” of Parliament on Thursday.

Sources said the BJP might continue demanding resignation of Dikshit, as it believed that the CAG report had given it an opportunity to avenge the setback it recently suffered in Karnataka, where it had to ask B S Yeddyurappa to step down as chief minister in the wake of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining.