Budget session: Sonia to hold Congress Parliamentary strategy group meeting today

New Delhi: The working president of Congress Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of the party’s Parliamentary strategy group at 10.30 am at 10 Janpath on Sunday ahead of the second part of the Budget session of Parliament beginning from Monday.

The meeting holds significance in the backdrop of the poll verdict in five states, which came as a rude shock to Congress, which was hoping to do well to revive its prospects for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and also fend off the emerging challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) to replace the party as the fulcrum of anti-BJP politics in the country.

The meeting is likely to deliberate on the strategy of the party in two Houses of Parliament. Moreover, this meeting comes just a day ahead of the resumption of the second half of the Budget session of Parliament. The second half of the Budget session will conclude on April 8. The first half of the Budget session began on January 31 and concluded on February 11.

Earlier on Friday, Congress G23 met at senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s residence in the national capital. Congress leaders Bhupender Singh Hooda, Manish Tewari, Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma, Akhilesh Prasad Singh attended the meeting.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won four out of five states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, in recently concluded Assembly polls. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP and its allies won 255 seats out of 403 Assembly constituencies. In Uttarakhand, the party secured 47 out of 70 seats.

In Goa, the BJP won 20 seats, out of 40, and got the support of independent candidates. The BJP led coalition in Manipur bagged 31 seats out of 60 seats.