NEW DELHI, July 5:
Congress today said it will comply with all formalities to get the status of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha even as the party has been kept on tenterhooks on the issue ahead of Budget Session beginning on Monday.

            “We are ready to do all formalities,” senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after Congress President Sonia Gandhi held parleys with top leaders at her residence 10 Janpath.

            Azad, who is Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, insisted that the Leader of the Opposition post in Lok Sabha is essential for selection of several high offices like Lokpal.

            “We are not just asking for the post for a representative of the party but it is a constitutional requirement in the selection process of several high offices,” he said.

            Azad further pointed out that the concerned Act of 1977 does not speak of any requisite number for a party to get the post. “So the Act will prevail over the rules (which speak of a party requiring 10 per cent of total number of seats to claim LoP),” he said.

            Azad’s remarks are significant as they have come at a time when a section of the party is of the view that it should approach the court if the demand is rejected.

            A senior party functionary speaking separately on the condition of anonymity, said that LoP post is the right of Congress as it is the single largest party and it has a strong case to test the Modi government in this matter.

            While the Congress President held parleys with top leaders A K Antony, Ahmed Patel, Sushilkumar Shinde, Leader of the party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Deputy Leader Amrinder Singh, chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia, Azad, and Deputy Leader of the party in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, Rahul Gandhi separately met with a number of general secretaries at his 12 Tughlaq Lane residence.

            The meetings were held on a day when Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan steered clear of the issue of grant of Leader of Opposition status in the House to Congress despite the party appearing to raise the pitch for it.

            Significantly, a Union Minister today remarked that how could the Speaker decide on the matter when the Congress is yet to formally seek the status.

            After the party discussed the floor strategy in the top level meetings, Azad indicated that the issue of price rise will be the prominent one that would be raised by the Opposition given the fact that Narendra Modi came to power by raising the issue of inflation under the UPA rule.

            “Modi and the BJP would have been under 100 if they had not exploited the sentiments of people on the issue of price rise,” he said.

            “We will be both constructive and offensive depending upon the interest of the people. If some promises to the people are not being implemented then we will definitely be offensive,” Azad added.

            The high-level meetings have also come in the backdrop of speculation about imminent organisational changes in the party. The Congress Vice President is learnt to have discussed the political situation in Maharashtra, Haryana and Assam, where there was talk about a change of guard sometime back.

            However, a party functionary, who attended the meeting with Rahul Gandhi, downplayed talks of a change of guard in states.

            Those who met Gandhi included AICC general secretary in-charge for Haryana, Delhi and Punjab Shakeel Ahmed, Mohan Prakash, who is looking after Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and CP Joshi, looking after West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. (PTI)

KOCHI, July 5: Forty-six nurses, who were held captive by ISIS militants in Iraq, today returned home by a special Air India flight to a happy reunion with their families here, bringing to an end their about month-long ordeal.
The special aircraft, which also had on board about 137 others, touched down the tarmac at the Kochi International Airport at 11.57 AM, a senior airport official said.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy whose coordinated effort with the Union Government that ensured liberty to nurses from his state, besides another who hails from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu received them at the airport.
Family members of nurses, on whose face a sigh of relief was writ large had assembled in large numbers to see their beloved ones return and were joined by political leaders from BJP and Congress at the airport.
The ordeal of the nurses, who were working at a hospital in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, began when ISIS (Islamic State for Iraq and Syria) militants launched an offensive in that region on June nine.
Even as Indian authorities continued to maintain constant touch with their counterparts at Iraq for safe release of nurses, they were moved out on Thursday against their will and detained in the militant-held city of Mosul.
Efforts by External Affairs Ministry led to setting free the nurses held in captivity and they were transported in buses to Erbil International airport yesterday.
The Special Flight that left Erbil in the early hours of today arrived at Mumbai for a brief stop over for refuelling and catering supplies.
Besides the nurses, the flight also carried 137 other Indian nationals, including 70 from Kirkuk in the northern part of Iraq, 23 crew members and three government officials, including a joint-secretary level IFS officer and an IAS woman officer from Kerala.
Chandy thanked the Centre, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Indian Embassy in Iraq and MEA for ensuring the return of nurses from strife-hit Iraq.
“The Centre has acted in complete understanding of the deep anxieties of Kerala. The Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Iraq have made sincere efforts in securing release of the nurses,” Chandy told reporters here.
Kerala Government has made arrangements to enable nurses to reach their respective destinations across the state. (PTI)