NEW DELHI: With the first two days of the Winter Session washed out in both Houses of Parliament since it opened on Monday, essentially over the Adani issue, Trinamool Congress took a different line, from the Congress-led charge against the government, at its meeting of party MPs meeting on Wednesday. “TMC wants the House to run so that people’s issues can be raised,” party leader in Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien told reporters after the meeting.
Since the Adani issue pushed by Congress has been leading to disruptions, many opposition parties including TMC, keen to raise other issues to take on the BJP-led government, agreed to a two-day discussion on the Constitution proposed by the government, to use the opportunity to bring up every matter of importance, that they want to highlight in the House.
“TMC wants Parliament to run. We don’t want one issue to disrupt Parliament. We must hold this government accountable for its multiple failures,” TMC Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told reporters on Wednesday.
Mamata Banerjee‘s party is working out its own space within the INDIA bloc, essentially to have its own say within the group, even while Congress is the largest party and hence gets to lead the opposition charge most often. Congress’ recent electoral defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra and TMC’s victory in the Bengal bypolls have pushed the regional party into taking its own line, rather than follow Congress, while remaining within the opposition bloc.
Most of the INDIA bloc party leaders including Mamata Banerjee are expected to attend Jharkhand chief minister and JMM chief Hemant Soren’s swearing-in on Thursday, for a show of strength for the opposition bloc.
Asserting that TMC is part of the INDIA bloc at the national level, but not electoral ally with any party, Dastidar said, “We will take on BJP but our outlook on how to go about it can be strategically different… TMC does not have an electoral alliance with any party, but we win.”
TMC wants to take up Bengal’s deprivation, unemployment, price rise and inflation, situation in Manipur and the northeast, fertilizer shortage and the Aparajita (women’s protection) Bill, that has been passed by the West Bengal assembly but is being withheld by the governor, in the House. The party plans to take the imbroglio on the Aparajita Bill to President Droupadi Murmu and hold a statewide campaign on November 30.
Of the 18 notices for adjournment motions in RS, for suspension of listed business to hold discussions on urgent issues, nine were from Congress MPs on the Adani matter on Wednesday. Other parties gave notices on Manipur Sambhal violence, increasing crimes in Delhi (by Sanjay Singh, AAP). Sushmita Dev (TMC), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Raghav Chadha (AAP) and Sandosh Kumar P (CPI) had given separate notices for discussion on violence in Manipur, while John Brittas (CPM), A A Rahim (CPM), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) and Abdul Wahab (IUML) gave notices to discuss the recent violence in UP’s Sambhal. All opposition parties protested leading to adjournment for the day, when Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected the 18 notices