Mamata, Maya, AAP, Sena to skip oppn meet on Citizenship law, NRC

Opposition parties scheduled to meet on Monday (January 13) to discuss the contentious Citizenship law and the National Population for Register (NRC), and finalise a joint startegy on them, will not see the participation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiv Sena.

While Mamata has pointed to the clashes between a cadre of her party and that of the left, during the trade union strike last week, for skipping the meet, Mayawati has taken exception to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not visiting Kota in Rajasthan to express her condolences to the mothers of all the dead babies.

Asserting that it was she came up with the proposal of opposition meet on the issue, she said, “I was the first to launch an andolan (movement) against CAA, NRC. What the left and the Congress are doing in the name of CAA-NRC is not a movement but vandalism.”

She further said, “What happened in the state – it is no more possible for me to attend the meeting anymore.”

Hitting out at Priyanka, Mayawati has said that the if the Congress scion does not meet the victims of the Kota tragedy then her calling on the victims in Uttar Pradesh would be viewed as actions that border on “political interests and drama.”

Aam Aadmi Party has made up its mind to stay away as election to the Delhi assembly is just a few weeks away in which the Congress is a rival.

The Shiv Sena, which has already expressed its opposition to the CAA-NRC, in all likelihood, is expected to stick to toe the line of the Congress only on matters concerning Maharashtra as the two are in alliance in the state

Calling the citizenship law discriminatory, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi demanded its withdrawal besides putting a halt to the NPR process. Addressing the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet on Saturday, she said, “The CAA is a discriminatory and divisive law. The sinister purpose of the law is clear to every patriotic, tolerant and secular Indian: it is to divide the Indian people on religious lines.”