Decision was taken in meet held by 15 Opp leaders in Parl
The Opposition on Monday said it will extend its support to the Constitution amendment bill which seeks to give power to States and UTs to make their own OBC lists.
The decision by the Opposition, which has been consistently protesting in Parliament over a range of issues ever since Monsoon Session, was taken at a crucial meeting of 15 Opposition leaders, including Congress, TMC, RJD, DMK, Shiv Sena, SP and others before the day’s proceedings started.
The meeting happened at the chamber of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi too came to Parliament for the first time in the ensuing Monsoon Session to express her full support and solidarity to the unity of Opposition to take on Modi Government in the next Lok Sabha polls.
“The Government is going to introduce the constitutional amendment bill in Parliament. We all leaders of various parties will support this bill, and we want this bill being introduced today (Monday) to be passed immediately after a discussion on it,” Kharge said in his address to the media after the meeting.
“We will peacefully support this bill. This issue is in the interest of backward classes and the country,” Kharge said.
RJD Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha said that this has been a big issue, and added that the Opposition would support the Centre on it. “And we will also push for caste-based census,” he said.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha, is significant to parties, including the ruling BJP which faces an Assembly elections early next year in Uttar Pradesh. The Bill aims to clarify provisions in the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Bill to restore the power of States to have their own lists of backward classes after identifying them.
The leaders met at the Parliament complex to formulate a common strategy on this as well as issues like the Pegasus snooping controversy and farmers’ concerns as the Monsoon Session of Parliament entered its final week. This comes a day after the Opposition leaders released a video expressing their anguish over the Modi Government’s reluctance to discuss the issues being raised by them since July 19 when the Monsoon Session started. The scheduled ending is on Friday.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was among those who attended the meeting held at the chamber of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. Besides the Congress, leaders of the DMK, TMC, NCP, Shiv Sena, SP, CPM, RJD, AAP, CPI, NC, IUML, LJD, RSP, and the KC(M) were present.
In a related development, former Haryana Chief Minister & INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala met with former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and discussed the formation of the third front. Last week RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav had called on Mulayam Singh Yadav and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Earlier, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had met Sonia and Rahul.
The Opposition parties have come together in seeking a discussion on the Pegasus snooping issue and the farmers’ problems. Parliament has failed to transact any significant business since it met on July 19 for the Monsoon session. Some bills, however, have been passed amid the din.