Opposition Leaders Attend Breakfast Meet Hosted By Rahul Gandhi To Discuss Pegasus Row

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday hosted a breakfast meeting for Opposition leaders to discuss the Opposition’s strategy in Parliament regarding the Pegasus row.

The meeting, which was hosted at the Constitution Club in Delhi, was attended by the leaders of Trinamool Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, CPI-M, CPI, RJD and Samajwadi Party. Many Congress MPs were also present apart from leaders of JMM, JKNC besides IUML, RSP, KCM and RSP.

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

Besides Gandhi, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh 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 Centre, however, has claimed that this is a non-issue and does not want it to be discussed in Parliament.

Congress sources tell Outlook, Gandhi's eagerness to take centre stage in the effort to keep the Opposition bloc united has been shaped to some degree by his interactions with poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who is likely to join the Grand Old Party in a key role when interim party chief Sonia Gandhi carried out a “drastic revamp of party organisation sometime after the Parliament’s monsoon session ends on August 13.” Kishor, who has been a poll strategist for Opposition parties like the Trinamool, DMK, AAP and the YSR Congress in recent years, has been stressing the need for all Opposition parties to bury their differences and come together if they wish to defeat the BJP in 2024. To this end, Kishor has been discussing a blueprint for Opposition unity with the Gandhis as well as other Opposition satraps like Pawar, Banerjee and others ever since the recent assembly polls in Bengal saw the BJP suffer a humiliating defeat by the Trinamool.

(With PTI inputs)