Congress to raise Maharashtra govt formation issue in the Parliament

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday chaired the party's parliamentary strategy group meeting here which resolved to strongly raise in both Houses of Parliament the issue of BJP's Devendra Fadnavis being sworn-in as the Maharashtra chief minister.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K Suresh, KC Venugopal, among others were present at the meeting held at Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence.

"We will seriously raise issue of Maharashtra. We will stall proceedings in both Houses. Government is killing democracy from Arunachal Pradesh to Goa, Karnataka and now Maharashtra. We have already discussed with like-minded parties," Suresh told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the Maharashtra political situation, with the Congress likely to raise the issue of Fadnavis' swearing-in along with Ajit Pawar in both houses of Parliament.

Government formation in Maharashtra has come under the Supreme Court's scrutiny with the Centre being asked to produce before the court on Monday morning the letters of the Governor inviting Fadnavis as well as the communication of the BJP leader staking his claim.

After Fadnavis returned as the chief minister on Saturday, the Shiv Sena claimed that the Sena-NCP-Congress combine has a support of 165 MLAs and can comfortably prove its majority in the Assembly.

The BJP has claimed that Fadnavis had the support of 170 MLAs. The majority mark in a House of 288 is 145.