Sonia meets Opposition leaders to strategize on suspension of 12 MPs

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met a group of Opposition leaders including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NC’s Farooq Abdullah and DMK leader TR Baalu for consultation and find a joint strategy on the suspension of 12 MPs in the Rajya Sabha.

While the Opposition leaders met Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence, sources said more such meetings are lined up over the next few days to bring all opposition forces together.

Opposition parties have been protesting the suspension of the 12 Rajya Sabha MPs and are holding protests, seeking the revocation of their suspensions.

Reports said, at Tuesday’s meeting, a consensus was reached to ask Sharad Pawar to speak to Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu on finding a resolution to the suspension of the 12 MPs.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury were also part of Tuesday’s meeting.

Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, wasn’t invited to the meeting.

While Gandhi had invited Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin to the meeting, the duo sent their deputed leaders – Raut and Baalu – respectively.

Earlier in the day, opposition MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha held a protest march from the Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex to Vijay Chowk with Rahul Gandhi alleging that the Opposition is not being allowed to raise issues in Parliament, which is now merely a building and a museum. “Wherever the Opposition is trying to raise issues, they are suppressed. The government does not allow us to raise issues. This is the murder of democracy. We want to raise issues against the government, but we are not allowed to do so,” he told reporters.

(With inputs from agencies)