Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has been playing the role of key trouble-shooter of the government, is keeping the main Opposition in good humour to ensure a smooth Winter Session of Parliament.
On Monday, he held a meeting with the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley.
The meeting is significant after the Opposition, including the BJP and the Left, made it clear that home minister P. Chidambaram would be their main target during the Winter Session commencing on November 22.
The BJP had earlier floated the idea of moving a no confidence motion against the Manmoahn Singh government to expose the SP, BSP and the fence-sitters ahead of the UP Assembly polls. Top leaders of the BJP are expected to meet at the residence of Mr L.K. Advani on November 21 to discuss floor strategy. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has called a meeting of floor leaders on November 22 morning. If the BJP and Left insiders are to be believed, the strategy is to put the Congress top ministers in the dock on the 2G spectrum scam issue. “We have collected relevant government correspondence to fix some key ministers during the session,” a senior BJP MP said. Mr Mukherjee reached out to the BJP to discuss the contentious issues in a bid to ensure smooth conduct of business in the House.