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The Trinamool Congress and 13 other Opposition parties on Friday boycotted the Constitution Day event at the Central Hall of Parliament at the request of the Congress party.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge had approached the Opposition parties to skip the function on the directions of Congress President Sonia Gandhi who alleged that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were on one side “trampling” the Constitution and on the other trying to make it a “PR event”.
Apart from the Left parties, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party and the Indian Union Muslim League boycotted the event.
The Constitution Day was celebrated by the government as a part of its ongoing Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (festival). It was on this day (November 26) in 1949 that the nation adopted the Constitution of India by the Constituent Assembly.
The programme organised in Parliament was addressed by President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Thursday, Sonia Gandhi had directed the party colleagues to reach out to all the Opposition parties for a broader unity in Parliament during the winter session.
When Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary suggested that the Trinamool Congress should not be approached given that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party is on a poaching spree of Congress leaders from across the country, Sonia Gandhi shot him down and insisted that the floor management in Parliament and outside politics are two separate issues.
In the past few months, many Congress leaders have quit the party and joined the Trinamool Congress with the latest being 12 legislators in Meghalaya.
From the Trinamool Congress side, political strategist Prashant Kishor is doing all the groundwork by talking to the disgruntled Congress leaders and also to those who had in the past few years quit the grand old party.
A few months ago, Kishor was set to join the Congress but the deal got abandoned as the grand old party was unwilling to agree to all his demands.