Oppn leaders to hold strategy meeting for Parliament session Tuesday

Leaders of various opposition parties will meet in Parliament House Tuesday evening to chalk out their joint strategy for the Parliament session.

UPA chairperson and leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party Sonia Gandhi has convened the meeting of various parties this evening at 6 pm, where they would discuss their joint strategy to corner the government on key issues.

This is the first time the opposition leaders will sit together to evolve their joint strategy for the Parliament session.

The meet comes in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling a meeting of various parties to discuss the 'one nation, one election' issue, celebration of 75 years of Independence in 2022 and 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary this year. It will be followed by a dinner-meeting with all MPs on June 20.

Earlier in on Tuesday, top Congress leaders led by Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi met and decided on the party's strategy for the session.

Sources said the meeting, chaired by Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi and attended by Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the strategy to be adopted by the party during the meeting called by the prime minister.

Senior Congress leaders A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, were among those present at the meeting held at Sonia Gandhi's residence 10, Janpath.

Modi has invited heads of all the parties who have an MP either in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha for the meeting Wednesday.

After the new Lok Sabha MPs take oath and elect the new Lok Sabha speaker on June 19, President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint sitting of both the Houses on June 20 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

The government is keen to get some crucial bills passed in this session, including the controversial triple talaq bill, over which the Congress and some other parties have raised objections to the bill.