Left, BSP to meet President to demand immediate Parliament session

Leaders of the Left parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Telugu Desam Party will meet President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday to demand immediate convening of Parliament session.

The meeting comes in the wake of the Left demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit for "lying to people and Parliament" on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

They had also demanded the immediate convening of Parliament session to discuss several "burning" issues like the nuclear deal and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Orissa.

Left sources said Rashtrapati Bhavan had fixed their appointment with the President on Tuesday.

Reacting to reports on exchange of letters between the State Department and the then US House Foreign Affairs Committee on the deal in Januray, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat had said, "The only option left to them [United Progressive Alliance] is that the prime minister should quit.

"But neither will they convene Parliament session nor will they quit. It is a shameless government. Why are they afraid of Parliament? Why are they running away. When a serious situation had developed in Jammu and Kashmir, a session should have been convened. But by not convening the session, the government has shown complete disregard and contempt for Parliament," he had said.

The monsoon session was supposed to have started in August, but the government has decided to convene the next session from October 17.