Parliamentary floor leaders meet ahead of Budget session

New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI) Floor leaders of various parties on Tuesday attended an all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the Budget session of Parliament.

Defence Minister and Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and his deputy Arjun Ram Meghwal represented the government at the meet.

Congress’ K Suresh, TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay, DMK’s T R Baalu, Shiv Sena’s Rahul Shewale, Samajwadi Party’s S T Hasan, JD(U)’s Ram Nath Thakur and TDP’s Jayadev Galla were among the leaders present at the meeting at the Parliament House complex.

Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, who represented the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, said he raised the issue of the “violent attack” on the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi in Assam and the state government’s curbs on it.

An “unwritten dictatorship” prevails in the country and accused the central government of misusing probe agencies such as the CBI and the ED to target opposition leaders such as Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, he told reporters while the meeting was underway.

Tiwari said he raised these issues after consulting opposition parties.

It is a customary practice ahead of every session to convene a meeting as leaders of different parties highlight the issues they want to raise in Parliament, and the government offers them a glimpse into its agenda and seeks their cooperation.

It will be a short session this time, between January 31 and February 9, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set to table an interim budget ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The new government will present the full-fledged budget.

The session will begin with President Droupadi Murmu’s address.