Congress and other opposition parties are meeting today in the capital to discuss their strategies for the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to start from July 18, 2018.
With less than a year before next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the opposition parties intend to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government on several issues like farmers’ suicide, lynching, rights of Dalits, women’s security, increasing bank frauds and threat to national security among other things.
Also, the opposition parties will discuss the issue of fielding a consensus candidate for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s post which remains vacant since the end of Congress’s P J Kurien’s term on July 1 this year.
The meeting will take place in the office of Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad at Parliament House.
Congress is likely to have no issue in fielding any candidate from other opposition parties. However, name of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy is surfacing in political circles. So far no formal discussion has taken place among the opposition parties on this.
Meanwhile, lacking numbers in the Parliament’s upper house, BJP is seeking the support of its allies and other parties like Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the AIADMK to thwart the opposition parties from bagging the important position in the Rajya Sabha. There are talks that BJP may go for Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral for the post.
[Cover photograph representational]