Congress to call Opposition meet before special session
Congress on Friday said it will call a meeting of Opposition parties to devise a joint strategy ahead of the Parliament session during which the Government is set to take up amending the women’s-reservation law and increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and State assemblies.
Congress also reiterated its demand that an all-party meeting be called by the Government after April 29, when polling for the West Bengal election will be over.
Addressing a Press conference along with party colleague Mukul Wasnik after a CWC meeting, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the issue is not women’s reservation but it is about delimitation and there is no information on its details.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will call a meeting of Opposition leaders, most likely on April 15, ahead of the parliamentary sittings starting April 16, to formulate the way forward, Ramesh said.
He alleged that this move of the BJP — led NDA Government is to influence the election results in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
This is an attempt to divert attention from real issues, Ramesh claimed.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, chaired by Kharge, was attended by former party chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, Ramesh and Sachin Pilot, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, and former Union ministers Ambika Soni and Anand Sharma were also present. The meeting comes days ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament, during which the Government will bring bills to implement the Women’s Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary polls and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women.
Congress had alleged earlier that the Government had called the “special session” of Parliament to pass bills related to amending the women’s quota law and delimitation to “grab political mileage” in the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu polls.
Kharge alleged that the Narendra Modi Government’s proposed delimitation exercise related to the implementation of the women’s reservation law would have “grave consequences” and warrants thorough deliberation. Kharge said his party would formulate a collective strategy with others in the Opposition to move forward “unitedly” on this issue.
He said the Modi Government is convening the sitting of Parliament from April 16 with the sole intention of securing political advantage, which is a “violation” of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), and is keen to pass the Constitutional Amendment Bill in “utmost haste”.
During Parliament’s sittings, the Government intends to pass a significant Constitutional Amendment Bill so that it may claim credit for, and derive political benefit from, during the upcoming State Assembly elections, he alleged.
