New Delhi: The Congress was elated over the INDIA bloc’s Jharkhand win and disappointed over the alliance’s poor show in Maharashtra, but would still take on the NDA aggressively during the winter session of Parliament starting November 25.
According to party insiders, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi would firm up the strategy for the coming session, along with senior floor leaders on Saturday, where the group will also review the Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha while Rahul Gandhi is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was set to make her debut in the Lower House of Parliament with her record win in the Wayanad by-election. Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi, who was a coordinator for Jharkhand, is the deputy party leader in the Lok Sabha.
“We are very happy over the win in Jharkhand. The result in Maharashtra was a bit disappointing. It went against our expectations. But that will not affect our aggression in Parliament where we will hold the NDA government accountable over several national issues, including the US indictment of businessman Gautam Adani, removal of SEBI chief Madhabi Buch, communal strife in Manipur among others,” AICC secretary in-charge of Jharkhand Saptagiri Ulaka, who is also a Lok Sabha member, told ETV Bharat.
The AICC functionary noted that among the four assembly elections held after the national polls, the INDIA bloc had won two Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand while it lost Haryana and Maharashtra.
“It is a two each kind of score. That is okay. Now we have to play constructive opposition and be united as a bloc in parliament,” said Ulaka.
The controversial Waqf property Amendment bill is likely to be tabled in this session which will face resistance from the opposition.
According to the AICC functionary, the factors that went in favour of the INDIA bloc was a clear chief ministerial face in JMM leader Hemant Soren and the social welfare schemes of the government besides a coordinated campaign by the ruling alliance. “The BJP tried to polarise the electorate through the infiltrators issues but failed,” said Ulaka.
The newly elected Congress MLAs in Jharkhand would meet on November 24 and later a letter of support to the JMM would be issued for coalition government formation, which the grand old party would also join.
The mood in the MVA camp was dull a day after the alliance had claimed to win over 160 seats.
“The results are against our expectations. We need to look into the reasons behind it. How could the leads during voting go wrong? There seems like some manipulation,” AICC secretary in-charge of Maharashtra BM Sandeep told ETV Bharat.
MVA insiders said reports of EVMs charged up to 99 percent after voting were surprising and need to be flagged. They noted that the issues between the alliance partners will have to be factored to explain the shocking results.
