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Informist, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024

By Kuldeep Singh

NEW DELHI – Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Tuesday met Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay at the Parliament House complex and discussed about the absence of the Trinamool Congress members from the protest against industrialist Gautam Adani, sources familiar with developments said. The move is widely seen as an attempt by the Congress to cement the cracks within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.

Bandyopadhyay told Gandhi that the Trinamool Congress members were not informed about the agitation in advance, adding that the party was more focussed on issues specific to West Bengal, sources said. Gandhi had also met Bandyopadhyay on Friday at the Parliament Complex, but the discussion between the leaders didn't touch political developments. The Trinamool has 28 members in the Lok Sabha and 12 in the Rajya Sabha. It is the third-largest party in Rajya Sabha and the fourth-largest in the Lok Sabha.

Two key allies of the bloc--the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party--were absent from the protest organised by the Congress at the Parliament Complex on Tuesday, to press for a probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee into allegations of bribery and fraud against Adani. The Trinamool Congress had also skipped the bloc's meeting on Monday.

The US Department of Justice in November indicted Adani, the chairperson of the Adani Group, in the US over an alleged multi-billion dollar bribery and fraud scheme involving his solar projects in India. Adani Group, however, termed the allegations baseless.

In the upper house, the Congress members had joined the Samajwadi Party members in raising the issue of violence at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, five people were killed and several others injured in violence on Nov. 24 after protestors pelted stones on a team of officials conducting a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid complex in Sambhal. Samajwadi Party member Ram Gopal Yadav called Sambhal clashes a well planned conspiracy to divert attention from allegations made by the SP that police did not allow people to cast votes in by-polls. The SP has 37 members in the Lok Sabha and four members in Rajya Sabha.

Earlier, the I.N.D.I.A. bloc parties had criticised the Congress after its poor performance in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Trinamool and Rashtriya Janata Dal had stepped up attacks on the Congress party. The Shiv Sena (UBT) had called Congress arrogant and overconfident. The Trinamool had criticised the Congress for not accommodating regional parties. The RJD, too, had advised the Congress to respect alliance principles and focus on accommodative politics. End

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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