BJP braces for stormy session from tomorrow

New Delhi: Ahead of a stormy Parliament session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday held separate meetings of party leaders and decided to brazen out Opposition’s demand for action against ministers and chief ministers allegedly involved in Lalitgate and Vyapam scams and contentious academic appointments.

Modi held a late evening discussion on the strategy for monsoon session of Parliament starting from Tuesday, where party members decided to “aggressively defend” beleaguered leaders. The prime minister will have another round of interaction with BJP parliamentary party executive and NDA leaders on Monday for evolving a common approach for the session.

Earlier on Sunday, Amit Shah met leaders embroiled in different controversies and asked the party to be prepared so that the Modi government was not found wanting in neutralising opposition charges against the



government.

Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar and Piyush Goel were also present at the meeting Shah had called at his residence to have interaction with leaders facing political heat – Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was to be in the meeting but could not attend because his flight was delayed. He was likely to meet Shah late in the evening. 

Party sources said Sushma Swaraj told Shah that she was confident of defending herself in parliament on charges that she had tried to influence British authorities to provide travel documents to disgraced IPL former commissioner Lalit Modi.

Each of the leaders — Sushma, Smriti, Raje and Chouhan — were asked by the BJP chief to come armed with documents related to their cases. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha,