Opposition parties have decided to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘One Nation, One Election’. The decision was taken unanimously at a meeting of the Opposition parties convened by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and attended by leaders from the Congress, the TMC, the DMK, the NCP, the NC, the RSP, the Left and others.
Prominent leaders who attended the meeting included Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, K Suresh all from the Congress party, TR Baalu, Kanimozhi of the DMK, Supriya Sule of the NCP, Farooq Abdullah of the NC, Thirumaavalan Thol (VCK), NK Premachandran
(RSP), PK Kunhalikutty (IUML), and Thomas Chazhikadan of KC-M. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has already opposed by declining to attend the meeting called to discuss the issue of ‘One Nation, One Election’ idea.
The meeting by Sonia Gandhi was called to chalk out their joint strategy for the Parliament session and to take a decision of the choice of Lok Sabha Speaker. Newly appointed leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said the Congress and other UPA allies have decided to support the BJP candidate Om Birla for the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker but remained silent on the issue of Deputy Speaker. Chowdhury said the Congress has already moved a motion supporting the ruling party candidate for the post of Speaker of Lok Sabha.
The Congress and other Opposition parties, have however, not decided on the strategy for the post of Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha and are adopting a “wait and watch” policy.
On the issue of One Nation One Election, Chowdhary said the parties were opposed to the idea in principle. Since some issues are to be sorted out, the UPA will meet again on Wednesday morning to discuss the issue further and take a common stand at the meeting called by Modi in the evening.
Earlier in the day a meeting of the Congress top brass, including Sonia Gandhi and party chief Rahul Gandhi, was held to decide the strategy on key matters such as Lok Sabha speaker’s election and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to discuss the one nation, one election issue.
Sources said the meeting, chaired by Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi and attended by Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the strategy to be adopted by the party during the meeting called by the Prime Minister.
Senior Congress leaders AK Antony, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, were among those present at the meeting held at Sonia Gandhi’s residence 10, Janpath. The strategy for the dinner-meeting was also discussed at the Congress meeting.