The Congress-led Opposition parties’ meeting on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be held in Delhi on Monday, but Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Aam Admi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati will stay away.
While Mamata Banerjee had said last week that she was boycotting the meeting because of “dirty politics” of the Congress and the Left parties in West Bengal, Kejriwal has apparently not been invited to the meeting. Kejriwal and the Congress are contesting each other as well as against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Delhi state elections, and thus their coming together in a meeting of opposition parties, seemed unlikely.
Mayawati too is reportedly not attending the meeting. She had said that she would not attend any meeting called by the Congress after all six lawmakers of her party in Rajasthan joined the Congress in September last year. She said that this was a major betrayal, since the BSP was supporting the Congress government in the state.
Mamata Banerjee not attending the meeting is being discussed the most however, as she has been most vocal among the opposition leaders, about the CAA. She said she was the one who had suggested that such a meeting be held, but she was enraged about the politics of the Congress and the Left parties in Bengal. In the strike called by 10 national trade unions, including that of the Left parties, Banerjee and her government not only opposed it, but made all attempts to keep offices, transport etc open. There were clashes between the protesters and Trinamool Congress workers opposing the strike, and Banerjee later said that it was “hooliganism” in the name of strike.
Several chief ministers – including Mamata Banerjee – and many in Congress ruled states, have said that they wouldn’t implement National Register of Citizens, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Population Register in their states.
The meeting of the Opposition parties is expected to bring some kind of formal resolution, or a decision to take such a resolution against the implementation of the CAA, NRC and NPR.
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