Sonia Gandhi chairs meet to prepare agenda for the upcoming Monsoon Session

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, on Wednesday, chaired a meeting of the party's Parliamentary Strategy Group to formulate a strategy to corner the Government on various issues in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, on Wednesday, chaired a meeting of the party's Parliamentary Strategy Group to formulate a strategy to corner the Government on various issues in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. The meeting was being held virtually in which former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Congress' former President Rahul Gandhi and other leaders including AK Antony, KC Venugopal, Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, Jairam Ramesh, Manickam Tagore and others also took part.

Congress sources informed that the party will demand a full discussion over the rising fuel prices and inflation in the country. Apart from this, Congress is going to raise the issue of the Rafale fighter jet deal in the Parliament session. The Opposition party will target the Central Government over its Covid-19 management and the pace of vaccination in the country, along with questioning it over the preparation of the third wave of the pandemic. Also, issues like farmer's agitation and restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir will be raised by the Congress party.

Congress' Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge has been given the charge to coordinate with other allies to raise these issues in the Parliament session. The Congress President has stressed the need to put up a united front in both the houses by asking the MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to coordinate among themselves.

This meeting was also considered to be crucial as it came amid the speculations of change of guard on the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. The need to replace Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary felt by the party to allow better coordination with Trinamool Congress, whose Chowdhary is a fierce critic. It is also being said that Congress has started considering working to unify the opposition forces ahead of the next general elections.

Names of Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Gaurav Gogoi, and Ravneet Bittu were doing the rounds. However, the Congress sources have informed that the proposal has currently been abandoned and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary will continue with the post of LoP in Lok Sabha for this session as there is not much time left for its commencement. However, it might be possible that the decision of change in leadership in the lower house will be taken after this session.