New Delhi: INDIA bloc parties will hold an online meeting Saturday to reach a consensus on issues that they would raise to corner the government during Parliament’s Monsoon Session and convey a message of unity, but AAP has distanced itself from the Opposition grouping.
The TMC, which was earlier said to be skipping the INDIA bloc meeting, however, said its national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will attend the online meeting.
The meeting comes right before the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which starts on Monday. It will be held after a long gap since the INDIA bloc parties jointly deliberated the country’s political situation.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said the INDIA bloc is united and its prominent leaders will hold deliberations online on Saturday and meet in Delhi later.
Late on Thursday night, the Congress announced that a meeting of the leaders of the INDIA bloc parties will be held online on Saturday evening to discuss the prevailing political situation of the country.
The leaders would deliberate on a host of key issues, including the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, the demand for a discussion on the Pahalgam attack, and Operation Sindoor.
US President Donald Trump’s claims of bringing about a halt in hostilities between India and Pakistan, and the push to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma, embroiled in a row following the discovery of burnt wads of currency at his residence after a fire incident, are also likely to feature in the discussions.
However, in a jolt to Opposition unity ahead of the Parliament session, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) distanced itself from the INDIA bloc, saying it is not part of the alliance anymore and questioned the Congress’ role in leading it.
“The AAP has cleared its stand. The INDIA bloc was for the (2024) Lok Sabha polls. We fought the Delhi and Haryana Assembly polls on our own. We are going to fight the Bihar election solo. We fought the bypolls in Punjab and Gujarat all by ourselves. The AAP is not part of the INDIA (bloc),” Singh told PTI Videos.
He, however, said AAP will strongly raise issues in Lok Sabha while asserting the party has “always played the role of a strong Opposition”.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party contested the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and Haryana during the 2024 general elections in alliance with the Congress.
Slamming the Congress, Singh questioned its role in leading the Opposition bloc.
“It is not a child’s play. Did they hold any meeting after the Lok Sabha polls? Was there any initiative to expand the INDIA bloc? Sometimes they criticise Akhilesh Yadav, sometimes Uddhav Thackeray and sometimes Mamata Banerjee. The INDIA bloc should have been united. The Congress is the biggest party of the bloc. But did it play a role (in ensuring Opposition unity)?” he asked.
Meanwhile, the TMC said that initially it was to skip the INDIA bloc meeting that was to be hosted in Delhi, but now that it is going to be held online, Abhishek Banerjee will attend it.
On the INDIA bloc’s online meeting, Ramesh said all the prominent leaders of the bloc will attend the Saturday meeting.
“People would not be able to come to Delhi Saturday due to different programmes. It has been decided that we will have an online meeting before the Parliament session. After that, we will meet in Delhi also,” he said and asserted that the INDIA bloc was united.
“The question that should be asked is why the name of the BJP president after J P Nadda has not been announced till now… The BJP people need to worry about what is happening in their party and what is happening between the BJP and the RSS,” Ramesh said.
In a post on X Thursday night, Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal said, “A meeting of the leaders of the INDIA parties will be held online on Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 7 pm to discuss the prevailing political situation in the country.”
During the Parliament session, the top Congress leadership would also raise issues such as the demand for the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and rising atrocities against women in the country.
The Opposition party has also decided to raise farmers’ problems, the issues of rising unemployment, safety and security of the country and the Ahmedabad air crash during the session.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had convened a meeting of the party’s parliamentary strategy group at her 10, Janpath residence here on Tuesday evening.
Top party leaders, including Congress president Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh, Manickam Tagore and others had participated in the meeting.
PTI
