West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee meets Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. File photo, PTI.
Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has called for a virtual meeting of like-minded Opposition parties on August 20.
As per reports, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, DMK chief MK Stalin, JMM Executive President Hemant Soren are expected to attend the meeting.
On the other side, a day after the Monsoon session ended amid unruly scenes in the Rajya Sabha, leaders of several opposition parties on Thursday stepped up their offensive accusing the government of crushing their voice in Parliament, "murdering" democracy and bringing "outsiders" as marshals to beat up MPs, a charge denied by the government.
The government on its part alleged that the opposition members misbehaved and pushed the marshals in the upper house when the Insurance Bill was being passed. It also charged the opposition with disrupting Parliament and not allowing it to function normally.
A video of the melee in the Rajya Sabha where opposition MPs are seen clashing with the marshals also went viral with both sides blaming each other.
During the day, both the opposition leaders and union ministers met Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu at his residence separately demanding action against those indulging in violence and ascertaining the truth.
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Naidu also met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and both expressed concern over the unruly developments and said strict action should be taken to avoid recurrence of such events in future.
Leaders of 11 opposition parties met in Parliament in the morning after which they staged a protest match to Vijay Chowk, where they addressed the media. They also issued a joint statement and accused the government of deliberately derailing Parliament and alleged that their MPs including women members were manhandled by outsiders who were not part of Parliament security.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the voice of people was crushed in Parliament and democracy was "murdered".
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