NEW DELHI: At least 50 leaders from 25 Opposition political parties under INDIA bloc gathered at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s Sunehri Bagh residence here on Wednesday.
The leaders of the parties who have gathered at the the LoP’s residence included the Congress, NC, PDP, RLP, SP, RJD, VIP, CPI, CPM, CPML, FB ,JMM ,TMC, NCP(SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), DMK, VCK, RSP, IUML, Kerala, Congress (M), K Congres (J), MNM, MDMK KMDK and PWK.
The Congress leader hosted the opposition leaders for a dinner at his residence amid the ongoing Monsoon Parliament session, which has seen frequent logjam over SIR issue.
It is for the first time the Lok Sabha LOP Gandhi is hosting this kind of event with the party insiders saying that the move was aimed to send a message across that the Opposition can gather on his call. Although several big names, including Mamata Banerjee, gave it a miss. However, Banerjee sending her representatives Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’ Brien also has put weight behind Rahul. While DMK chief MK Stalin personally gave the event a miss, however he also sent his representatives TR Balu, Tiruchi Siva for the event.
Gandhi raised the issue of voter theft with the leaders at the event. The insiders also said he would also have a detailed discussion for Vice-President’s post with the leaders to get consensus over a mutual candidate.
Also, the SIR issue has also been discussed at the event. The Opposition has been repeatedly urging the government for a discussion on the issue inside the Parliament. The repeated pleas from Opposition are being turned down with government including the Parliamentary Affairs Minister K Rijiju saying that the matter cannot be discussed in the Parliament due to it being “subjudice”.