Opposition stages symbolic walkout at all-party meeting ahead of Indian Parliament session

India's opposition parties today staged a symbolic walkout from an all-party meeting convened today ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament starting tomorrow in protest against the government's invitation to a rebel faction of the Trinamool Congress.

Congress MP and communication in charge Jairam Ramesh said the DMK and AAP, which have not been attending INDIA bloc meetings recently, also joined today's walkout.

"All opposition parties staged a walkout from the all-party meeting for a few minutes. This was a mark of protest against the decision of the Modi government to invite the NCPI that is a parking place for 20 so-called 'rebel' TMC MPs when a final decision is still pending with the Speaker," he said.

In June, a group of TMC lawmakers told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they had merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and that they wanted to sit in the House as a separate bloc.

While the Speaker has ordered separate sitting arrangements for the TMC rebel MPs, a decision on the merger is pending before him.

Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav said the entire opposition is united, "no matter how much the government tries to engineer defections or create divisions".

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Brittas, who represented the party at the meeting, said the opposition walked out because the "sanctity of the all-party meeting has been sullied because TMC split has not yet been accepted by the Speaker".

Today's walkout sets the stage for a likely stormy monsoon session of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, where the opposition could aggressively raise the issues of "theft" of money donated by devotees at the Ayodhya temple and question paper leaks in competitive examinations for MBBS students.

A number of key bills are also expected to be tabled during the coming session.