BSP, AAP leaders to skip Congress-led Opposition meet

Lucknow: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are likely to skip the meeting called by the Congress-led Opposition to be held in New Delhi to strategise the way forward for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests and also to discuss the situation arising out of violence on various university campuses and protests over the Act, sources.

Where the AAP is not attending the meeting in view of the upcoming assembly polls in Delhi, BSP supremo said it would demoralise her party workers. Mayawati tweeted saying her party workers were upset after the Congress in Rajasthan indulged in ‘horse trading’ by getting BSP MLAs to join their party, following the election results.

ALSO READ: Pulwama: Top Hizbul militant Hamad Khan, aides killed; hideout busted

She, however, made it clear that the BSP was opposed to the CAA and demanded that the government withdraw it.

https://twitter.com/Mayawati/status/1216558466237489157?s=20

“The BSP is against CAA/NRC. We once again appeal to the central government to withdraw this divisive and unconstitutional law,” Mayawati said, adding that “it is unfortunate to politicise students in JNU and other educational institutions”.

Last week, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would skip the meeting, accusing the Left Front and the Congress of playing “dirty politics” for the violence the Bharat Bandh last Wednesday. The Aam Aadmi Party, too, has decided to stay away from the meeting.

“I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on January 13 in New Delhi as I do not support the violence that the Left and Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday),” Banerjee said on the floor of the Assembly when Opposition MLAs insisted that the House pass a resolution against the CAA.

ALSO READ: Congress’ Youth Wing carries out ‘peace march’ in Delhi

Several Opposition leaders have decided to meet today to discuss the way forward in their protest against the CAA. Moreover, the Budget session of Parliament is slated to begin next week, and the Opposition parties are likely to raise the issue in Parliament.

At its Congress Working Committee meeting on Saturday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi termed the CAA a “discriminatory and divisive” law whose “sinister” purpose was to divide people on religious lines, and asserted that the NPR (National Population Register) in form and content was “disguised NRC (National Register of Citizens)”. The party passed a resolution demanding that the Act be withdrawn and the National Population Register survey be stopped.

Earlier, Kolkata Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too refused to join the Congress-led Opposition meet

ALSO READ: Lohri: Puja Vidhi, Muhurat, Timings, Samagri, Mantra all you need to know!