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India's opposition parties stage walkout of all-party meeting in Parliament
They were protesting the allocation of a separate place for the 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs
- PUBLISHED: Sun 19 Jul 2026, 10:04 PM
Opposition parties staged a brief walkout of an all-party meeting called by the government in the Indian parliament on Sunday on the eve of the monsoon session, protesting the allocation of a separate place for the 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs. The speaker has still not recognised the rebels, now known as the Nationalist Congress of Progressive India (NCPI), leading to the walkout.
"The merger of these so-called rebel MPs has not been approved by the Speaker,” Mahua Moitra, the TMC MP told reporters. “The 20 disqualification petitions are still pending. After the 91st amendment, there is no room for a separate bloc. So, on what grounds did the Parliamentary Affairs Minister extend an invitation to these 20 rebel MPs and how are they attending this meeting? We have registered our strong protest and walked out as a symbol of our protest.” The TMC’s numbers in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, has fallen sharply to just eight, after the 20 rebels set up their party.
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Jairam Ramesh, the Congress spokesperson, told the media that the walkout was “a mark of protest against the decision of the Modi government to invite the NCPI, which is a parking place for 20 so-called ‘rebel’ TMC MPs, when a final decision is still pending with the Speaker.” The all-party meet was called by the government to build consensus among the parties ahead of the monsoon session, which will be held for a month beginning Monday.
The opposition plans to take on the government on issues including the leakage of exam papers, and the protest by activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was moved from the Jantar Mantar site where he was on a hunger fast and taken to a hospital. The protest was part of a Cockroach Janta Party agitation demanding the sacking of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the leakage of papers.
But the opposition has been weakened after 37 MPs from the two houses have joined hands with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Six MPs from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray group) have also strengthened the NDA, which now claims to have the support of 329 Lok Sabha members. But it is still short of the two-third majority of 362, needed to pass constitutional amendment bills. In the Rajya Sabha, after getting the backing of other members, it could raise its strength to 152, but still short of a dozen for the two-third majority needed for the amendment.
