Rahul to raise farmers' issue at budget session:Kharge

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said on Saturday that his party president Rahul Gandhi would raise issues relating to Rafale, farmers' distress, unemployment, demonetisation and interference into autonomous bodies like CBI by the Modi government in the budget session of Parliament.

Kharge, while addressing a news conference here, said that the Parliament would resume on January 31 with the President's speech.

"Then the Parliament would initiate the budget session where our leader Rahul Gandhi will raise these issues," the Congress leader said.

He said that the BJP government led by Narendra Modi was "destroying democracy" along with his aide Amit Shah.

Kharge said that the fight in 2019 elections would be for freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

"We re fighting for them. We will continue to fight for these," he said.

On Karnataka, Kharge said that the alliance between Congress and JD(S) will continue, adding that one MLA, who was untraced, would be served notice.

Asked if there was a possibility of an alliance between the Trinamool Congress and Congress in the coming Lok Sabha poll in West Bengal, Kharge said it will depend on Congress' state party unit similar to how things are working in Tamil Nadu with DMK and JD(S) in Karnataka.