Mamata to skip Modi’s all-party meeting

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was yesterday named as leader of the Congress by United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi.

According to top Congress sources, the letter nominating Chowdhury, a member of parliament from West Bengal’s Behrampur and a former Union Minister, as party leader in the Lok Sabha (Lower House), was sent to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

Chowdhury himself confirmed his nomination as the Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha. “We will raise our issues with priority. Number of MPs does not matter. I will fulfil my responsibility given to me by the party,” Chowdhury said. One of the two Congress MPs from West Bengal and a former state party chief, he said that relations with the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress are competitive at a state level and the situation changes when it comes to the national level, adding that the strategy would be formulated accordingly.

“Instead of doing the matter hurriedly, I would request you to kindly circulate a White Paper on the subject to all political parties inviting their views by providing adequate time. If you only do so, we will be able to give concrete suggestions on this important subject,” she said.

The prime minister has convened the meeting of heads of all parties who have representation in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) or the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) to deliberate on issues including the ‘One Nation, One Election’ idea, the celebration of 75 years of independence in 2022 and 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary this year.

Mamata also informed Joshi that her party, Trinamool Congress, has already conveyed to Niti Aayog that it did not support “selection of a few districts as aspirational districts as it would not conform to the overall objectives of achieving balanced and uniform development”.