Ahead of Parliament convening for the Monsoon Session on July 21, constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc will hold an online meeting on Saturday to reach a consensus on issues it will raise to corner the BJP-led NDA government.
However, despite looking to project unity, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) only confirmed its participation in the meeting on Friday ahead of its scheduled Martyrs’ Day rally on Saturday, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to skip the meeting after distancing itself from the INDIA bloc.
Ahead of the meeting, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said his party is “not part of the INDIA bloc”. “The INDIA bloc was for the (2024) Lok Sabha polls. We fought the Delhi and Haryana Assembly polls on our own. We are going to fight the Bihar election solo. We fought the bypolls in Punjab and Gujarat by ourselves. The AAP is not part of the INDIA bloc,” Singh said.
Slamming the Congress, Singh questioned its role in leading the Opposition bloc. “It is not child’s play. Did they hold any meeting after the Lok Sabha polls? Was there any initiative to expand the INDIA bloc? … Did it play a role (in ensuring opposition unity)?” he said.
The INDIA bloc’s last meeting was on June 5, 2024, a day after the Lok Sabha election results were announced. At that meeting, 21 parties were in attendance – including the AAP and TMC.
On Saturday, the INDIA bloc is expected to deliberate on a host of key issues, including the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, the demand for a discussion on the Pahalgam attack, and Operation Sindoor.
US President Donald Trump’s claims of bringing about a halt in hostilities between India and Pakistan, and the push to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma, embroiled in a row following the discovery of burnt wads of currency at his residence after a fire incident, are also likely to feature in the discussions.
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Demand for J&K statehood
As part of a series of protests culminating in a ‘Chalo Delhi’ campaign on July 21, the Congress is intensifying its push to restore statehood in Jammu and Kashmir with a protest in Kashmir on Saturday.
J&K Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra said workers from every block and district of J&K will leave for Delhi on July 21 to hold protests in front of Parliament. “Our effort will be to hold protests in front of Parliament and gherao it symbolically. The goal is to raise our voice in Delhi so that it reaches all members of Parliament, among whom 233 are members of the INDIA bloc supporting our cause,” Karra said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday to press for legislation in Parliament to grant full statehood to J&K. Kharge and Gandhi, also called on the government to bring legislation to include the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution.
Reacting to the development, J&K CM Omar Abdullah thanked the Congress leaders for raising this issue, saying, “This is a good thing. I thank Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi for raising this issue. We are not demanding anything that has not been promised to us before. We have been told many times that we will be given statehood at the right time… Now, Jammu and Kashmir should be given statehood soon.”
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Karnataka Congress’s convention
On Saturday, the Karnataka Congress is set to hold the ‘Sadhana Samavesha’ – a convention to showcase the achievements of its state government – in Mysuru.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is expected to inaugurate and lay foundation stones for development works worth Rs 2,658 crore.
With the government under pressure over the June 4 Bengaluru stampede, which is set to be probed by a commission headed by retired High Court judge John Michael Cunha, and questions over whether Siddaramaiah would continue as CM amid party factionalism, the convention is being seen as a show of strength by Siddaramaiah, though he has himself dismissed this notion.
– With PTI inputs