Even as the Congress continued to mount pressure on the Modi government to concede the official Leader of Opposition status to it in the Lok Sabha, its leader in the Lower House Mallikarjun Kharge, it is learnt, is set to meet Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday.
Congress sources confirmed that the party sought a meeting with the Speaker, but declined to provide any further details. But this came at the end of a day — on Tuesday — when Congress president Sonia Gandhi called on President Pranab Mukherjee.
Though the meeting was described as a “courtesy call,” the timing of the meeting is considered significant and is believed to be related to the Congress’s bid for LoP status.
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Ms. Gandhi’s meeting with Mr. Mukherjee came after a discussion she had with party MPs in the Lok Sabha in the morning on this subject. At the meeting, the UPA MPs decided to write to the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking an immediate decision on the issue of the LoP.
Accompanying the letter is a memorandum now signed by all the Congress’s UPA allies.
Curiously, sources in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said that Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu is not averse to having a recognised LoP in the Lower House like in the Rajya Sabha. But other senior Union Ministers, including Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad have — while stressing that the decision would be that of the Speaker’s — repeatedly said that the Congress has no claim to the official LoP’s post as it got less than the mandatory 10 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha.
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However, Mr. Naidu’s apparent “softening” was interpreted by one of his cabinet colleagues thus: “Venkaiah has to deal with the Opposition parties and ensure Parliament functions — that’s all.”
The Congress is now banking on using the argument that the UPA, a pre-poll coalition, has 60 seats, more than the 10 per cent required: now that all the UPA partners have signed the memorandum supporting its case for LoP status, it is hoping to persuade the Speaker.