Mamata, Stalin, Uddhav & Pawar to attend Sonia's meeting

Major Opposition leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, will attend a virtual meeting by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on August 20.

Even though the agenda of the meeting is not known, reports suggest that Congress may appeal for the Opposition parties to stay united in their fight against the BJP. This virtual meeting is expected to be followed by a face-to-face meeting in the next month.

As of now, apart from Thackeray, Banerjee, and Stalin, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren have been invited to take part in the meeting.

Also read: Monsoon Session ends with Parliament productivity reduced to a quarter

The proposed meeting comes after continuous protests by the Opposition parties against the farm bills and the Pegasus snooping case among others in the recently concluded Monsoon session of the Parliament. Both the Houses of Parliament were continuously disrupted amid the protests and sloganeering by the Opposition parties, who demanded discussions on the Pegasus snooping case, farm bills, and the increasing fuel prices.

The Monsoon session came to an end on August 11, two days ahead of the schedule, after the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned sine die, due to these continuous disruptions. The Lok Sabha functioned for only 21 hours, while the Rajya Sabha functioned for 28 hours due to disruptions.

Here’s the list of the Opposition leaders confirmed for the meeting so far:

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren

NCP chief Sharad Pawar