The Congress on Tuesday took its battle for demand of leader of Opposition (loP) status to Rashtrapati Bhawan. Congress president Sonia Gandhi met President Pranab Mukherjee purportedly to discuss among other things her party’s demand for the loP status in the lok Sabha and the pressure on the UPA-appointed Governors to quit office.
Sonia met the President after conducting a meeting with party MPs in the lok Sabha on the matter. The meeting came after UPA MPs decided to write to lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan seeking an immediate decision on the issue.
A party MP, who was present in the morning meeting of MPs with Sonia, said that the Congress chief apprised the President about her party’s stand on the loP status and expressed her reservation on the change of Governors appointed during the UPA regime. Sonia had frequently called on Mukherjee ever since the former Finance Minister became President in July 2012.The party has already asserted that it would exercise all options to ensure a “democratically correct, logical conclusion” on the issue and has not ruled out the option of approaching the court on the matter. Congress has 44 seats in the 543-member lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, Congress leader in the lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to meet Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday to press for the party’s demand for getting the loP status.Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the government would be happy to have a recognised loP in the House like in the Rajya Sabha. He also said that he regretted that even without formally staking claim, some Congress leaders were talking of going to courts on the issue.