20 Oppn parties come together at Sonia’s dinner

Centre planned discussions and voting on demands of grants of 3 ministries

NEW DELHI: Leaders of 20 opposition parties on Tuesday laid the groundwork for a broader strategy to tackle the ruling BJP in Parliament and in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections at a dinner hosted at her residence by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The attendees included NCP chief Sharad Pawar , TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Tejashwi Yadav and his sister Misa Bharti from the RJD, Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, Kanimozhi of the DMK, RLD president Ajit Singh and Ram Gopal Yadav of the SP.

Leaders of the TDP, the BJD, the AAP, the AIADMK and the Shiv Sena, among others, were not invited.

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday brought key elements of the Budget for passage in Lok Sabha amidst the ongoing stalemate in Parliament prompting complaints from opposition parties that it is trying to bulldoze its way through without discussion.

The Centre on Tuesday planned discussions and voting on the Demands for Grants of railways, agriculture, and social justice ministries and wanted voting on the Outstanding Demands for Grants (the Guillotine) for the Union Budget. It also wanted to introduce the Appropriation Bill, 2018 and the all-important Finance Bill. With several hours lost to daily disruptions, the Centre’s floor managers are keen to complete pending government business at the earliest.

The proposed list of business signalled the intent of the government to aggressively push these issues through parliament which has hardly seen any business done this session, with the Congress and a few other opposition parties seeking a debate on the fraud at Punjab National Bank, the Telugu Desam seeking special status for the state of Andhra Pradesh, and the AIADMK and the DMK, the appointment of the Cauvery Management Board.

The BJP, which called a meeting of its parliamentary party on Tuesday, blamed the Congress for the impasse. Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said after the meeting that the ruling dispensation has been negotiating with different parties to break the deadlock. “Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi spoke on democracy outside the Parliament but don’t practise it,” he said, adding that the ruling party has issued a whip to its members to ensure their presence during passage of important bills.

Opposition parties such as the Congress, Trinamool Congress, the CPI (M), the DMK and the

NCP wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan arguing that the time was allotted for discussions on the Demand for Grants of six ministries but the schedule of debate was yet to be finalised. “Without deciding/ informing the date and time of Guillotine and passing of Finance Bill to all Party leaders, it is quite unusual to include them in List of Business,” the letter said.