Rahul calls for unity as Oppn leaders meet over breakfast

Leaders of several opposition parties attended a breakfast meeting hosted by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi at the Constitution Club on Tuesday where stress was laid on opposition unity.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greets opposition leaders during a breakfast meeting, at the Constitution Club in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo

Several Opposition MPs led by Gandhi later cycled to Parliament to highlight the issue of fuel price hike.

Some Opposition MPs, who could not cycle, walked down to Parliament.

Apart from around 100 MPs of the Congress, leaders of several opposition parties including Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party attended the meeting.

Leaders of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, besides Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Kerala Congress (M) were also present at the meeting.

Leaders of 17 opposition parties were invited at the breakfast meeting, but the Bahujan Samaj Party and Aam Aadmi Party did not attend.

Trinamool Congress, which had skipped the last meeting of Opposition leaders by Gandhi, was also present at Tuesday’s breakfast meet.

"The single motive to invite you is that we should unite. The more this voice unites, the more powerful it will become, the more difficult it will become for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashriya Swayamsevak Sangh to suppress this voice," Gandhi said at the meeting.

"We should remember the foundation of unity and it is important that now we start to come up with the principles of this foundation," he told the opposition leaders.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi listen to DMK leader Kanimozhi during a breakfast meeting of opposition leaders, at the Constitution Club in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI PhotoAfter the meeting, leaders of opposition parties cycled to Parliament from Constitution Club to highlight the high fuel prices and express their solidarity with the people who are suffering due to the high fuel prices.

"As far as fuel prices are concerned, the people of India are struggling and if we cycle from here to Parliament, it will have an impact," Gandhi said.

Besides Gandhi, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, KC Venugopal, Anand Sharma and P Chidambaram were present at the meeting.

The meeting comes amid continued standoff between the opposition and the government over the Pegasus snooping issue with the opposition demanding a discussion in Parliament and a Supreme Court monitored probe in the matter.

The government is, however, saying that this is a non-issue and does not want it to be discussed in Parliament. Kharge said leaders of various parties have been invited for the meeting and are expected to discuss issues like Pegasus, farmers' matter, and the need for a joint Parliament strategy.

"Nobody in the government is listening. So we have decided to get together. The opposition is united and we are all together," Kharge said at the meeting.

Among the leaders who attended the meeting were Saugata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Mohua Moitra (TMC), Sanjay Raut and Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena), Manoj Jha (RJD), Kanimozhi (DMK) and Ram Gopal Yadav (SP).