AAP steers clear as INDIA bloc mounts fresh offensive on Centre over special session demand

INDIA bloc leaders address a press conference demanding a special session of Parliament to discuss developments following the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. (PTI)

The Opposition on Tuesday mounted a fresh offensive against the Centre over its demand for a special session of Parliament to discuss the fallout of the military conflict with Pakistan. Leaders of five Opposition parties met in Delhi and signed a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a special session.

The development comes a day after official sources indicated that the government was not keen on convening a special session on Operation Sindoor but was open to the idea of a discussion on it during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

The meeting was attended by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, party MP Deepender Singh Hooda, TMC parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, and SP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav.

Following the meeting, Trinamool Congress MP O'Brien said that leaders of at least 16 parties had signed the letter.

Notable with its absence from this Opposition get-together, however, was the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party which has refused to be part of the collective citing differences with the Congress.

"We stayed away from the meeting today because the INDIA bloc was limited to the Lok Sabha elections. I, myself, am writing to the Prime Minister to convene a special session of Parliament," AAP MP Sanjay Singh told The Indian Express.

The AAP, which has positioned itself as a rival to the Congress in states like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat, does not want to be seen sharing stage with the party, especially ahead of crucial by-elections in Punjab.

Sanjay Singh, the AAP's chief coordinator of the INDIA bloc for the Lok Sabha elections, said that the AAP and Congress are head to head in both seats in the Gujarat by-elections and also pointed out that there was also no alliance in the Haryana and Delhi Assembly elections between them either.

Targeting the Congress, AAP national spokesperson Anurag Dhanda said, "The real alliance is between the BJP and the Congress behind the scenes. Rahul Gandhi says only that which benefits Modi politically. In return, Modi ji saves the Gandhi family from going to jail. Neither of them is interested in providing basic facilities such as schools, hospitals, electricity and water."

The letter, which was earlier meant to carry the signatures of just Congress MPs, was turned into a collective measure by the INDIA bloc at the behest of Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

"The initial plan was to have only Congress MPs sign the letter, but the Lok Sabha LoP wanted it to be the INDIA bloc’s letter. He reached out to Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, TR Balu (DMK leader), and Aaditya Thackeray. Our top leaders K C Venugopal and Gaurav Gogoi followed it up by reaching out to some parties… Our (Lok Sabha) chief whip K Suresh, and whips Manickam Tagore and Mohammad Jawed also reached out to some parties," a party functionary said.

Pointing out that the government is accountable to the Parliament, the Opposition leaders demanded that the government reveal to the House about the sequence of events since the Pahalgam attack and the success of the efforts being made to “isolate Pakistan on the world stage".

Besides the AAP, the CPI and the Sharap Pawar faction of the NCP are not signatories to the letter to the PM. While CPI's D Raja said he wasn't aware of any such Opposition meeting, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that the NCP(SP) has not signed the letter since the party's Lok Sabha leader Supriya Sule is leading a delegation abroad.

Notably, NCP(SP) president Sharad Pawar said the Parliament may not be the right forum to discuss national security issues and that it should be done at an all-party meeting.