Parliament deadlock likely as monsoon session set to begin

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties on Monday formulated a joint strategy to corner the government on various issues including joblessness, farm crisis, mob lynchings and atrocities against Dalits, during the Monsoon Session of Parliament starting July 18.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Gulam Nabi Azad of the Congress said, “We want to tell people that we will raise their issues. But if the government does not debate, then it would be responsible for the disruptions,” while adding that all parties want to see the Parliament function and it was the NDA which stalled proceedings in the previous session.

READ | Ahead of monsoon session, government reaches out to opposition for smooth functioning of Houses

“We want the Parliament to function. In the last session the government itself did not want to run the houses and disrupted proceedings with the help of its allies. But later the opposition was blamed for the disruptions,” he said.

In the last session of Parliament, a no-confidence motion moved by the TDP, Congress and the Left parties had made the government jittery leading to regular adjournments of the two houses with the help of TRS and the AIADMK that raised issues like special status for Telangana and setting up of the Cauvery board.

Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, the TDP members once again started reaching out to leaders of all the non-BJP, non-Congress parties, seeking support for the No-Confidence Motion being moved by the Chandrababu Naidu-led party over denial of special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

After withdrawing support from the government in March, the TDP MPs had held protest in both the houses of parliament. The issue was also discussed in the meeting of 12 opposition parties chaired by Azad. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told the gathering he will discuss the TDP’s motion with his MPs and other members.

The 12 parties including Congress, NCP, TMC, BSP, SP, RJD, DMK, CPI-M, CPI, JD-S, IUML and KC-M will now raise these issues at the all-party meeting called by the government on Tuesday.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said that there was no discussion on the names of Opposition candidate for the post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.

He said the Opposition will push for the election to the post in the monsoon session.