Ahead of Parl session, Cong meeting on Dec 3

NEW DELHI: Top Congress leaders will hold deliberations on Saturday on the party’s strategy to corner the government during the Winter session of Parliament starting December 7.

The Congress is seeking to corner the government on issues of unemployment, high inflation, falling value of the Rupee, high petrol and diesel prices despite reduction in global crude oil rates, and high GST rates on essential commodities used by common people.

According to people familiar with the matter, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, chief whip of the party in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, and party’s chief whip in Lok Sabha K Suresh will meet at the house of former party chief Sonia Gandhi Saturday evening to hammer out the party strategy.

Former Union ministers P Chidambaram and Manish Tewari are also likely to attend the meeting at Gandhi’s residence, as she is the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party. This will be the first session of Parliament after Kharge took over as the Congress president. A decision on whether Kharge continues as leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha will also be taken by the party leadership.

The Congress will also hold meetings with other opposition parties to evolve a joint opposition strategy in Parliament on issues of common interest.

The central government plans to bring 16 new bills in the winter session, beginning December 7. The session is likely to conclude on December 29.

It has convened a meeting of leaders of all political parties on December 6 to seek their cooperation on the smooth functioning of Parliament.