Indian Opposition Bloc Demands Resignation of Education Minister Amid Exam Controversy

The INDIA opposition bloc will write to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on alleged electoral irregularities and press for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid the uproar over paper leaks and exam glitches. These are among the five decisions the Opposition bloc agreed upon in its meeting at Delhi’s Constitution Club on Monday. The meeting, for which Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee came from Kolkata , took place amid a meltdown in her party in the aftermath of its stunning defeat in the recently held Assembly polls in Bengal. Flanked by Mamata Banerjee and Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced the decisions taken in today’s meeting. “It was agreed to send a letter to CJI (Chief Justice of India) on SIR (Special Intensive Revision) vote loot and stealing elections. The letter is to be delivered to the CJI very soon,” he said. The veteran leader added that the opposition parties had unanimously agreed to demand the immediate resignation of Education Minister Pradhan because he presided over the “betrayal of lakhs of youth who appeared for NEET and CBSE exams”. Kharge also demanded that the Union government immediately call an all-party meeting to discuss the precarious economic situation, unemployment, price rise, farmer and other people-centric issues. The Congress chief announced that INDIA bloc parties had agreed to meet every two months. “The next meeting will be held in Hyderabad in August,” he said. Kharge said the Opposition parties would continue to coordinate in Parliament during the Monsoon Session. The Opposition bloc last met on April 15, when it had devised its Parliament strategy on Bills related to delimitation and women’s reservation. But Monday’s meeting took place under very different circumstances. The Opposition stands weakened following the recent Assembly elections, and the equations have shifted. This time, DMK skipped the meeting , thanks to the Congress’s decision to snap ties with the MK Stalin-led parties and join hands with actor-politician Vijay’s TVK in Tamil Nadu . The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which once challenged Congress’s leadership of the INDIA bloc, has been humbled by its crushing defeat in Bengal and is now battling the prospect of an organisational collapse. Monday’s meeting saw the participation of Congress’s Sonia Gandhi , Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav , Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, National Conference’s Omar Abdullah, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti and Independent MP Kapil Sibal.