Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was yesterday named the leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha by United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi.
According to top Congress sources, the letter nominating Chowdhury, an MP from Behrampur in West Bengal, and a former central minister, as party leader in the lower house of parliament was sent to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Chowdhury himself confirmed his nomination as the leader of Congress in Lok Sabha and said he would fulfil his responsibilities.
“We will raise our issues with priority. The number of MPs does not matter. I will fulfil my responsibility given to me by the party,” Chowdhury told IANS.
One of two Congress MPs from West Bengal and a former state party chief, Chowdhury said that relations with the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress are competitive at state level and the situation changes when it comes to national level, adding that the strategy would be formulated accordingly.
Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation for a meeting of presidents of all political parties today, Chowdhury said a decision will be taken by the party.
The Congress is yet to announce the name of its chief whip.
After Sonia Gandhi was elected as chairperson of the CPP on June 1, party leaders had empowered her to name the party leader and the chief whip in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress is again set to lose the position of Leader of Opposition post in the lower house as it is two seats short of the requirement.
The Congress won 52 out of 542 seats. As per rules, a party needs one-tenth of the total seats (54) to lay claim for the Leader of the Opposition’s post.
Later, Sonia Gandhi chaired a meeting of leaders of constituent parties and other allies to discuss their floor plan during the budget session.
The meeting was attended by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Chowdhury, Communist Party of India leader D Raja, Kanimozhi and T R Baalu of the Dravida Munnetrw Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, VCK leader Thirumaavalan Thol, RSP leader N K Premachandran, IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty, and KC-M leader Thomas Chazhikadan.
Party sources said that the leaders discussed the opposition plans to deal with the BJP-led NDA in parliament during the budget session on issues like ‘one nation, one election’, triple talaq and others.
In the budget session, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha would have 30 and 27 sittings respectively between June 17 and July 26. Meanwhile, the Congress yesterday responded to Modi’s advice to the opposition, saying his words were most of the time not implemented
by his own party leaders.
Stressing on the importance of an active opposition in democracy, Modi on Monday told them not to bother about their numbers and instead actively take part in the Lok Sabha’s proceedings.
Before taking oath as a member on the first day of the 17th Lok Sabha, Modi said the role of an “opposition and an active opposition is important in a parliamentary democracy”.
Yesterday when former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi along with a host of senior party leaders met at Sonia Gandhi’s residence to discuss the party’s strategy, Chaudhary said: “If the prime minister’s message is delivered to his ministers or juniors then it will be beneficial for all.
“What the prime minister is preaching is most of the time not being implemented by their party leaders.”
General secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached her mother’s residence just minutes after the key meeting ended.
Source said as the Congress is the biggest opposition in Lok Sabha, a big responsibility lies on the party to play a key role in providing a strong opposition on the floor of the House.
On Monday, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma had given a sense of the party’s line – the government should end the ordinance culture and respect parliamentary process, important bills should be sent to Parliamentary Committees and then discussed in the house too, before being passed as laws.
