Congress takes a call on burning issues

Amid talks of new floor leader in the Lok Sabha, Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group will meet on Wednesday (July 14) to discuss key issues to be raised in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

The strategy group is likely to evolve consensus on the issue of fuel price hike, inflation and government's failure on handling the second wave of the pandemic. The party will also raise the issue of vaccination in the country.

Congress leader P. Chidambaram, addressing the media on Tuesday said, "Congress party will raise the issue of high inflation in the forthcoming session of Parliament and demand a full discussion on the subject as well as substantial relief for the people of India."

The party is also discussing, though unofficially, to change the floor leader in the Lok Sabha after the party was routed in the West Bengal Assembly elections, where the current leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is the state president.

The likely replacement are Manish Tewari who is also in the race of Punjab Congress chief, Shashi Tharoor and Gaurav Gogoi.

The Congress wants to bring in a leader who could coordinate with the entire opposition and oppose the government jointly in the house as party has less number and needs coordination with the DMK, the TMC and the Shiv Sena.

However, a section of the party is batting for Rahul Gandhi but sources say that he is not keen as the floor leader will not get the status of Leader of Opposition as Congress does not fulfill the criteria.

Incidentally, both Tharoor and Tewari are from the group of G-23 which wrote letters to Sonia Gandhi for sweeping reforms in the party. As Sonia Gandhi is reaching out to dissenters and opposition leaders, she is building a new team which is more flexible in approach. Chowdhury may be given the task to build the party in state as he is the Chief.