Cong leaders skips breakfast hosted for MPs by President; had Opp meet at same time, say party leaders

Both Modi and Sonia are MPs from Uttar Pradesh.

Asked whether Congress MPs had boycotted the breakfast meeting with Murmu, a senior Congress leader said, “No, it was not a boycott….we had meetings of Opposition leaders and Congress MPs around the same time.”

The leader added, “Anyway, these are not happy times for us to attend such breakfasts and dinners.”

In the morning, Sonia was in Parliament and attended the meeting of Congress MPs chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress Rajya Sabha MPs from Rajasthan K C Venugopal and Pramod Tiwari were present at meetings of Opposition leaders and Congress MPs.

Asked whether Sonia and other MPs skipped the breakfast meeting since the Prime Minister would have been there, one party leader said, “It is up to you to make those interpretations.”

The Congress has six Rajya Sabha MPs from Rajasthan, and Sonia is the party’s lone MP from UP.

Murmu has been meeting MPs from different states since March 15 and the last such breakfast meeting is scheduled on March 31, which will be attended by MPs from Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Meghalaya.

She hosted MPs from Delhi, Goa, Odisha, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu on March 24.

Among those present then was Congress MPs from Telangana Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komati Venkat Reddy.