New Delhi: As the Budget Session of Parliament is set to start from Monday, the Congress on Friday decided to corner the government by raising the issues like unprecedented rise in unemployment, a relief package to Covid-19 victims, Air India disinvestment, inflation, the border row with China and farmers' concerns.
The decision in this regard was taken during the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group, which was held virtually and chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi.
Notably, the Budget Session of Parliament starts on Monday with the President of India's address to a joint sitting of both the houses. The Union Budget will be presented on February 1.
According to party insiders, the top Congress leaders also decided to work closely with like-minded parties during the upcoming budget session of parliament and jointly raise matters of public concern.
"The Congress is making efforts to reach out to like-minded parties to put a united face during Budget Session to take on the Centre over rampant rise in unemployment and price rise affecting the larger section of society across the country," the party sources said.
Despite the fact that even most of the key Opposition parties are contesting against each other in all the poll-bound states, Congress is reaching out to them to work together for at least the first half of the Budget Session till February 11 as the 5 states, including Uttar Pradesh, will begin their first phase of voting on February 10.
Notably, all the major opposition parties such as Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Aam Aadmi Party are contesting against each other in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
The Congress Parliamentary Strategy group is chaired by Sonia Gandhi and includes Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, senior party leaders AK Antony, KC Venugopal, Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Jairam Ramesh and Manickam Tagore. Party MP Manish Tewari also attended the meeting.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a member of the group, did not attend the meeting. As a precedent, the meeting is called before every parliament session to decide the party's strategy.