The Congress has reached out to constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc to take a final call on whether or not to join the joint committee that will review the three Bills on the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and Ministers arrested on serious criminal charges for 30 days.
Sources on Sunday told The Hindu that the government had reached out to the principal Opposition party to name its members to the joint committee of Parliament.
The Lok Sabha had passed a resolution to refer the Bills to the joint committee soon after Union Home Minister Amit Shah had introduced the Bill in the Lower House on August 20.
The three Bills, introduced by the Home Minister, are the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
However, the INDIA bloc is divided on the issue. While the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) have declared their intent to keep away from such a panel, the Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Chandra Pawar) are keen to join.
The DMK too had publicly stated that they would go with the majority option within the bloc.
Those who advocate keeping away from such a parliamentary panel argue that six major Opposition parties had boycotted the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Bofors case in 1987.
Those who favour joining the committee say it would help record the Opposition’s point by point objections to the Bills.
“We are speaking to our allies to take a united position as we don’t want Opposition unity to be divided over this issue,” a senior Congress leader said.
Published – October 13, 2025 12:24 am IST
