Parliament Budget Session Resumes, Heated Debate Likely in RS

8 March will be the first day of Mallikarjun Kharge as Leader of Opposition since his appointment on the post

As the Parliament is all set to reconvene on Monday, 8 March, after a brief interval during the Budget Session, and the Opposition is gearing up to corner the government over various issues.

The Congress strategy committee met on Sunday to discuss the issues to be raised in the House.

Ahead of the second leg of the budget session, Congress parliamentary party chairman Sonia Gandhi chaired a virtual meeting of the party leaders on Sunday, 7 March.

In the meeting, the members of G-23 Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari joined in along with newly appointed Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary who is the floor leader in the Lok Sabha.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AK Antony and Jairam Ramesh also attended the meeting in which the Congress discussed the strategy to counter the government on key issues such as farmers' agitation, petroleum prices and unemployment.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the newly appointed Leader of Opposition, said: "They are choking agriculture and most importantly, they have no plan to address the growing concern of unemployment in the country."

8 March will be the first day of Kharge as Leader of Opposition since his appointment on the post and he has been a fierce critic of the Narendra Modi-led Central government.

The Opposition is expected to raise various issues such as petroleum prices, farmers agitation, social media rules, disinvestment and unemployment.

According to a Rajya Sabha bulletin, the reports of Standing committees of Health, Energy, Science and Technology, Forests and climate change will be presented in the Upper House.

(This copy has been edited for length.)