Opposition meet on floor strategy tomorrow

New Delhi: The 18-party conglomerate of Opposition parties will meet on Thursday to chalk out its floor strategy for the Winter Session of Parliament starting Friday, which will focus to a large extent on whether to raise the lynching of Bengali migrant worker Afzarul in Rajasthan. Sources said that incoming Congress president Rahul Gandhi may drop in at the meeting, that will also discuss how to counter the government on many other issues, including farmers’ distress, the economic slowdown and state-specific ones like Cyclone Ockhi.

The meeting will be held at 4 pm, just an hour before the all-party meeting called by parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar. The next day Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu has called a meeting of the business advisory committee of the Upper House over breakfast.

The Opposition strategy meeting will be attended  by the Congress, Left parties, Trinamul Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and NCP, among others. Trinamul Congress and Left leaders maintained that the lynching of Bengali migrant worker Afzarul in Rajasthan would be the chief issue for them. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has already condemned the incident in strong terms and has offered compensation to the family. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has also sought action in the matter.