Rahul tells Cong's LS MPs that opposition dominated 1st half of Budget session, say sources

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hailed his party's Lok Sabha MPs for raising people's concerns in the first half of the Budget session and asserted that this part was dominated by the opposition, which managed to corner the government on various issues, sources said. According to them, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, at a meeting with Congress MPs in the Parliament House complex, said the India-US interim trade deal was a ''sell-out'', and they should take this message to people far and wide. He asserted that the MPs must stand strongly with the farmers against the ''injustice'' meted out to them through this deal. Gandhi also hailed the seven Congress MPs and one CPI(M) parliamentarian, who were suspended for the session, for taking up the people's cause. Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha K Suresh, and whips Mohammed Javed and Manickam Tagore, were among those who participated in the meeting. ''A day before the conclusion of the first phase of the Budget Session, Leader of the Opposition RahulGandhi ji addressed Congress Lok Sabha MPs at the Parliament Annexe. We thank our leader for specially appreciating the courage and commitment of the eight suspended MPs who stood firm in raising the voice of the people,'' Tagore said on X. ''Democracy demands accountability, and our MPs upheld it with dignity,'' he added.