Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge to Attend Narendra Modi's Swearing-In Today

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has confirmed his attendance at Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday at 7:15 pm. Kharge will be attending the event in his capacity as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha, Congress sources said.

The decision was taken after holding talks with other INDIA bloc partners. Meanwhile, Bharat Raksha Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekar Rao has decided to skip the event.

The Congress’ top decision-making body, CWC, that met on Saturday unanimously urged Rahul Gandhi to take the mantle of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, as the buoyed party expressed its resolve to take on the new government aggressively and build on its gains in the Lok Sabha polls.

While Rahul Gandhi said he would take a decision “very soon”, former party president Sonia Gandhi was re-elected as chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party by the newly-elected MPs of the Lok Sabha and members of the Rajya Sabha at a meeting held in the Central all of Parliament.

After over three hours of deliberations on the party’s assessment of Lok Sabha results and its strategy for strengthening the organisation, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) decided to set up separate committees to review its performance in all states, including those ruled by the party, where the performance was lower than expected.

In a resolution adopted by the CWC, party general secretary K C Venugopal said, the CWC requested Rahul Gandhi to take the Leader of the Opposition position in the Lok Sabha.

“Rahul Gandhi is the best person to lead this campaign inside the Parliament, this is what the CWC’s view was…the entire CWC feels for a better and strong vigilant Opposition, those who want to protect the Constitution also, should be safe under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi as a Leader of Opposition, this is what the CWC resolution is,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi said he respects the sentiments of the CWC members and told them that he would take a decision on it very soon,” he told reporters.

The resolution also said that the CWC would be failing in its duty if it did not take note of the disappointing performance in some states in the midst of overall revival and called for urgent steps to address the shortcomings.