Partners rap Congress for ‘solo rush’ with notice; Mallikarjun Kharge regrets ‘lapse’

Though the no-confidence motion against the Modi government was primarily designed to showcase INDIA’s unity and aggression against the regime in Parliament on the Manipur issue, the Congress leadership’s manner of pursual irked its allies who expressed anger. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had to admit there was a lapse and express regret on behalf of his party to pacify restive allies.

It is learnt alliance leaders were provoked by the Congress leadership ‘rushing’ Gaurav Gogoi to the Speakers’ office with the notice for the no-confidence motion. According to certain leaders, at INDIA floor leaders’ meeting on Wednesday morning, the allies objected to the Congress unilateral move. They said since the decision to bring the no-confidence motion was taken collectively on Tuesday, the notice too should have been collectively submitted with signatures of floor leaders of INDIA constituents rather than Congress trying to make its own show, which, some said, went against the spirit of INDIA’s collective functioning and decision-making.

Among those who protested were Derek O’Brien (AITC), TR Balu (DMK), Ramgopal Yadav (SP), Sanjay Raut (SS), Elamaram Karim (CPI-M) and Binoy Vishwam (CPI). Kharge then tried to pacify them by saying what Congress did was a lapse and regretted it.

Later, AICC later made it a point to publicly stress on the collective nature of the no-trust motion. “We want to stress on the fact that the no-confidence motion is not Congress’ alone, but a collective motion on behalf of all allies of INDIA,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said at the official briefing.

Trinamool and NorthEAST angle in Gogoi’s choice
Many in Congress circles were intrigued to find the leadership picking party LS deputy leader Gogoi to file the notice because a day earlier, MPs were informally told either Congress LS floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury or senior MP Manish Tewari would move the notice. While some Congress leaders claimed AITC leadership had reservations with Chowdhury leading the charge, they also pointed out that since the central issue was Manipur, Gogoi, an MP from Assam, was chosen as a representative of the northeast.