Opposition huddle on CAA, NRC in Delhi today: Mamata, Mayawati to skip meeting

As the like-minded opposition parties meet on Monday in a joint meeting called by Congress to formalise a strategy on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Mayawati are likely to skip coming to a common platform. 

The opposition parties will meet at the Parliament annexe in New Delhi at 2 pm to chalk out a joint strategy on the CAA, and alleged police brutality against students. 

While Congress sources said that they are confident that all opposition parties of the opposition would attend Monday's meeting, the West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, has already refused to participate in the meeting.

"What happened yesterday in the state (during the labour strike) -- it is no more possible for me to attend the meeting anymore. I was the first to launch an andolan (movement) against CAA, NRC," she said. 

"What the Left and the Congress are doing in the name of the CAA-NRC is not a movement but vandalism," she added. 

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader, Mayawati, has said that she would not attend any meeting called by Congress after all six MLAs of her BSP in Rajasthan joined the party last September.

"Even though BSP was supporting the Congress government in Rajasthan, they betrayed us by taking away our MLAs. In such a situation, the BSP attending the opposition meeting led by the Congress will demoralise the party workers in Rajasthan," Mayawati took to Twitter to say. 

Who is likely to be present?

Samajwadi Party and Congress' new alliance partner Shiv Sena are expected to attend the meeting.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has already sought withdrawal of CAA and National Population Register.

The Congress-ruled states are likely to adopt a resolution on the issue as CWC has already taken a stand on it.

In a meeting on Saturday, the CWC, after passing a resolution, said: "The Narendra Modi-led Central government has unleashed the brute state power to suppress, subjugate and stifle the voice of youth and students across the country".

"A concerted attack on the Constitution, rampant unemployment, commercialisation of education, unprecedented fee hikes and autocratic refusal to listen to the voice and concerns of youth-student have led to spontaneous protests across campuses," it said.

Instead of listening to students, the Bharatiya Janata Party government has unleashed the police on them, made arrests, lodged FIRs, and even planned attacks on protesting students and youth, the CWC resolution said.

(With agency inputs)