TMC, Congress meet to plan united fight in Parliament against demonetisation

New Delhi: Leaders of the Congress and Trinamool Congress will be meeting in Delhi on Monday evening to chalk out a united fight during the Winter Session of Parliament beginning November 16 against the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes by the Narendra Modi government. Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Congress lawmaker who is also the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, and Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, would be meeting the TMC leader in the lower house, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, ahead of an all-party meeting convened by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in Monday, opposition sources said. TMC leader Derek O'Brien is also likely to be present. It was not immediately clear whether other opposition parties have been invited. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Sunday spoken to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury besides several other opposition leaders and mooted the idea of a united fight against the demonetisation move. Congress leaders too had reached out to several parties, including TMC to chalk out a joint strategy ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament. The Congress and TMC, besides other opposition parties like Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have targeted the government, accusing it of taking the decision in haste and without proper planning and caution, leading to harassment of the common man.