BJP targets Mamata over Jaynagar girl death; block road at CR Avenue
Leaders of India's opposition alliance will continue their agitation on the Parliament premises overnight against the suspension of AAP leader Sanjay Singh and their demand that the Prime Minister initiate a debate on Manipur in the House.
In a protest that began on Monday morning, India alliance leaders will take turns with a team to sit at the Gandhi statue overnight, leaders said, adding that the protest would continue on Tuesday. The last time an all-night protest was organized by opposition leaders was in July last year when 20 suspended Rajya Sabha members started a 50-hour relay protest inside the Parliament complex.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh, who has been suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the rest of the monsoon session, is expected to sit through the night in protest. Singh's wife had already brought the essentials for him to the place.
"All parties have drawn up lists of their leaders who will represent them day and night. The leaders will rotate." There is full solidarity between the parties. While the move is to protest Singh's suspension. It is also a protest demanding that the Prime Minister speak on Manipur, either in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha,” said a senior leader.
India's leaders have been adamant in demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi open a discussion on violence in Manipur, sources said, and several parties have rejected government efforts to appease them. Defense Minister and Deputy Lok Sabha Leader Rajnath Singh summoned Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, DMK leader TR Balu and TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay to convey the government's intention to discuss Manipur.
However, none of them relented in their demand that the Prime Minister address the matter in Parliament, sources said. INDIA alliance leaders also said that the opposition's demand for a statement by the Prime Minister in Parliament on the violence in Manipur was conveyed to the BJP on July 16, four days before the monsoon session.