PM Modi to chair first all-party meet since 21-day Coronavirus lockdown announcement

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday will conduct a meeting with the leaders of the Opposition parties at 11 am through a video conference. This will be the first time that the Prime Minister will interact with the Opposition all-together after the imposition of the 21 day lockdown due to Coronavirus. 

TMC leaders likely to skip the meeting

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Saturday that floor leaders of all those parties which have a combined strength of more than five MPs in both houses of Parliament will be part of the discussion with the Prime Minister on Wednesday at 11 AM. 

Joshi along with Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal have been assigned to coordinate the meeting. The strategy to fight COVID-19 pandemic including the lockdown is expected to dominate the discussion of leaders of various parties with Modi.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Ghulam Nabi Azad from the Congress and floor leaders of TMC, BSP, DMK, BJD, TRS as well as various other parties have been invited for the meeting. However, Trinamool Congress leaders like Derek O' Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay are unlikely to attend the interaction.

Opposition likely to raise issue of suspension of MPLADS

Meanwhile, multiple reports suggest that the opposition leaders will raise the issue of the suspension of Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme for two years. Some opposition MPs have already criticised the Centre’s decision to suspend the MPLAD scheme and transfer the amount to the fund to help with the fight against COVID-19.

In the past few days, PM Modi has been conducting video conferring with Chief Ministers of different states, with media house representatives, with sportspersons and others on a micro help to fight the war against deadly Coronavirus in the country.

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On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to leaders of major political parties to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. This included key opposition leaders such as Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekar Rao, and MK Stalin.

Additionally, he also had a conversation with former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil and former PMs Dr.Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda regarding the current situation.

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(With agency inputs)