New Delhi: Ahead of Parliament session that begins on June 4, the UPA coordination committee met on Tuesday to discuss the strategy of the party in the House. While the BJP has secured majority on its own in the Lower House, it is in a minority in the Upper House.
It was the first meeting of the UPA Coordination Committee headed by Sonia Gandhi after the worst electoral debacle of the Congress as well as the alliance and was an occasion to reflect upon what went wrong. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, IUML chief E Ahmed and RLD President Ajit Singh were present in the meeting.
Lalu Prasad, whose RJD, was supporting the UPA II government from outside and which fought this Lok Sabha polls in alliance with Congress, also attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the 2014 Lok Sabha election results and floor coordination for the upcoming Parliament session.
The leaders spoke on how to play an aggressive Opposition role in Parliament without being appearing obstructionist. After the meeting, AK Antony said the alliance wants to work more closely in Parliament. He, however, refused to divulge details saying detailed discussion will be held in the coming days. "Let us wait and watch," Antony said.
Pawar said, "This was the first meeting. We have decided that we have to be alert about the important issues of the country. This is the start." He said that they will react after looking at the 100 days agenda of the government.
"This meeting was held just to discus how to coordinate in Parliament," the NCP chief said, adding such meetings will take place in future as well. NCP is an ally from Maharashtra and National Conference is from Jammu and Kashmir. Both the state are going to Assembly polls in 2014.
Meanwhile, Sonia, who is the UPA Chairperson, will also be hosting a lunch for MPs of the alliance in Parliament Annexe on June 5, party sources said. After appointment of senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge as the Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, the names that are doing rounds for the Leader of the Party in Rajya Sabha are A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Digvijay Singh and Janardan Dwivedi.
A party functionary speaking on condition of anonymity said that after the nomination of Kharge, a Dalit leader from South India as Leader of party in Lok Sabha, the post in the Rajya Sabha could got to a non-Dalit leader from North India. Azad is considered a strong contender for the post. Dwivedi dismissed talk of being in the race. "No such offer or suggestion has come to me so far. Even if it comes to me, I will politely decline," he said. Asked about reasons for this, Dwivedi said, "It is not necessary to spell out reasons for every decision."
Congress has got only 44 seats in the Lower House this time and to be recognised as the main Opposition, a party has to get at least 10 per cent of the total strength of the 543-member House - that is 55 MPs. It has no such problem in the Rajya Sabha, where it has 67 seats in the 245-member House.
Senior party leader in the Upper House Karan Singh is learnt to have declined an offer to make him Leader of House earlier.
(With inputs from PTI)
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