NEW DELHI:With Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan admitting the No-confidence Motion against the government, the Opposition parties are busy formulating a combined strategy to put the Modi government on the mat during the debate on the motion.
With numbers stacked in the government’s favour, the Opposition is trying to project a united front and hopes to make a point during the debate.“Who says we don’t have the numbers?” former Congress president Sonia Gandhi quipped while her party spokesperson Rajeev Satav said they will talk to all the Opposition parties to forge unity ahead of the no-trust vote on Friday. “There is a lot of resentment among the lawmakers against the Modi government,” Satav said.
The Congress said among the key issues they will highlight to attack the Centre would be joblessness, farm crisis, women’s safety, lynchings, corruption and atrocities against Dalits. The Opposition will also press for the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Sonia will chair a meeting of party lawmakers on Thursday to decide the speakers in the debate. “This is an anti-people government. It has not fulfilled even 10 per cent of the promises made in 2014,” said Congress leader K V Venugopal.
The parties that had discussed the no-confidence motion on Monday were Congress, NCP, TMC, BSP, SP, RJD, DMK, CPI-M, CPI, JD-S, IUML and KC-M.TMC leader Derek O’Brien described the political situation in the country as akin to Emergency. The party had issued whip to all 34 Lok Sabha MPs to be present in the House on Friday.
The TDP, which was an NDA ally till March, also issued a whip to all the 16 members. The party will stress on its demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh, an issue that led it to party ways with the BJP. The NCP, too, had asked all its seven members to be present.
Agenda for House debate
Among the key issues Congress and other Opposition parties will highlight during the No-confidence Motion debate to attack the Modi government will be joblessness, farm crisis, women’s safety, lynchings, corruption and atrocities against Dalits.