AAP, Mayawati to skip Congress-led opposition meeting on Citizenship Act

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is likely to skip the meeting of opposition parties called by the Congress to discuss the situation arising out of violence on various university campuses and protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act, sources said.

The AAP is not attending the meeting in view of the upcoming assembly polls in Delhi, they said. 

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has called the meeting on Monday to discuss a strategy on protests over the CAA and the NRC.

BSP President Mayawati also said her party will not attend the meeting, saying it will "demoralise" her party workers In a series of tweets, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said her party is against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) but attending the meeting will demoralise BSP workers in Rajasthan, where the Congress has caused defections in her party.

"As is well known that despite the BSP support to the Congress-led Rajasthan government from outside, it has been for the second time that BSP MLAs have been made to join their party which is completely wrong" Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.

"Under such circumstances, the BSP attending the opposition meeting today under the leadership of the Congress will be demoralising for party workers in Rajasthan. Therefore, the BSP will not attend this meeting," she said.

However, she made it clear that the BSP is against the CAA and NRC "As it is, the BSP is against CAA/ NRC etc. It is an appeal to the central government again that it should withdraw this divisive and unconstitutional law. Also, It is very unfortunate to politicize students in JNU and other educational institutions" she added.