File photo: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi with her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi
Congress top brass including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh today held a meeting to chalk out the party's strategy for Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning next Tuesday.
The party is attempting to forge an Opposition unity on the floor of the House to corner the government on key issues including the Vyapam scam, Lalit Modi controversy and the Socio Economic and Caste Census.
The Congress' plan for a united attack on the government may get a jolt as some parties like Samajwadi Party and JD(U) do not seem to be on the same page with it on the issue of seeking External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's resignation over the Lalit Modi controversy.
The meeting was attended among others by party veteran AK Antony, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Deputy Leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, Chief Whip in Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia, and senior leaders Ahmed Patel and Digvijaya Singh.
Sources said that another round of meeting will be held soon to fine-tune the party's strategy.
"It was a free flowing discussion. Almost everybody spoke out his mind. We will hold another meeting a day or two before the session begins to fine-tune our strategy in Parliament," said a leader, who attended in the meeting.
The session comes at a time when several Union ministers including Ms Swaraj and HRD Minister Smriti Irani are under attack from the opposition over the Lalit Modi controversy and fake degree case, respectively.
The opposition has been demanding resignation of Ms Swaraj for allegedly helping former IPL boss Lalit Modi obtain travel document in the UK, and Ms Irani in the wake of controversy over her educational qualifications.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Anand Sharma said that his party expected the Prime Minister to walk the talk as he had spoken about 'zero tolerance' toward corruption. The party has also upped the ante against the government over its handling of Pakistan after Islamabad asked for more evidence and information from India on the Mumbai attacks case.
The government on its part has decided to go on the offensive on issues including the Vyapam scam and the Lalit Modi controversy, which also involves Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Though the contentious land bill may not be taken up during this session, the government has listed a heavy legislative agenda earmarking 35 items.
Congress, which has given a number of suggestions on the key GST bill, is waiting for the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha to table its report, while it has completely red-flagged the land bill.
Party sources said that while today's meeting was only a stock-taking strategy, the line of the action of party on key issues has already been made clear. "While there is no question of supporting land bill, we would like to see how many of our suggestions are accepted by the Select Committee. We would raise the issues of corruption and probity," a leader said.