Opposition to demand govt to hold RS deputy chairman election soon

The opposition parties on Monday decided to demand the government should start the process to elect the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Opposition leaders met here in the evening to decide their floor coordination strategy, particularly in the Rajya Sabha, for the Monsoon session of Parliament, which begins on Wednesday. At the all-party meeting convened by Parliamentary Affairs Ministry on Tuesday and later at the meeting called by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Opposition leaders will flag the issue of holding of the election to the post of the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat is yet to notify the election process, and at Monday’s opposition meetings fears were expressed that the it might be planning to put it in abeyance indefinitely. The opposition leaders also said they will demand answers from the Narendra Modi government on issues facing the people of the country at a time when the prime minister was trying to divert attention by building a "Hindu versus Muslim polarisation" narrative. “We will raise issues of public concern – of flight of capital from India, agrarian distress, of deposits of Indians in Swiss banks having increased, on lack of jobs and reservations to Dalits being taken away,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) Mohammad Salim.