All-party meet convened by government; Opposition parties demand discussion on Pegasus row, price rise

New Delhi: An all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament started on Sunday with most opposition parties demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row, price rise and unemployment. Sources aware of the deliberations at the meet said Opposition leaders also raised the issue of extended jurisdiction of the Border Security Force in some states, including West Bengal. Trinamool Congress leaders Sudip Bandopadhyay and Derek O’Brien are learnt to have raised the issue of bringing laws on minimum support price and disinvestment of profitable PSUs. The prominent Opposition leaders present at the customary session-eve meet included Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from the Congress, TR Baalu and Tiruchi Siva from DMK, Sharad Pawar from NCP, Vinayak Raut from Shiv Sena, Ramgopal Yadav from Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra from BSP, Prasanna Acharya from BJD and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah. The Winter Session of Parliament will begin on Monday and conclude on December 23.