NDA holds 'Mangal Milan' meeting to honour PM Modi, welcome new MPs

The NDA Parliamentary Party's 'Mangal Milan' meeting has started to honour PM Modi and welcome new Rajya Sabha MPs. A breakaway TMC faction, NCPI, has extended support to the NDA but did not attend the joint meeting, holding its own instead.

NDA holds 'Mangal Milan' meeting

The NDA Parliamentary Party's 'Mangal Milan' meeting has begun at the GMC Balayogi Auditorium in the Parliament Library Building on Tuesday. The meeting has been organised to honour Prime Minister Narendra Modi and welcome newly elected Rajya Sabha members. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived for the meeting accompanied by Union Ministers Jitendra Singh, Kiren Rijiju, and Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and G. Kishan Reddy, along with BJP National President Rahul Sinha, also arrived to attend the meeting. During the meeting, NDA partners will pass a congratulatory resolution honouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi for becoming the longest-serving elected Prime Minister, followed by his keynote address.

Ahead of the meeting, BJP MP Ashok Mittal expressed enthusiasm over attending his first NDA-BJP parliamentary meeting. "First of all, I feel very glad to have received this opportunity to attend the first parliamentary meeting of the NDA and BJP. I will get the chance to listen to the Prime Minister and our National President. The new direction I will receive on how to take the country forward and how I should move forward will serve as a great guiding light for me," Mittal told ANI.

Breakaway TMC faction NCPI extends support to NDA

Meanwhile, the newly formed Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), comprising 20 breakaway Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs supporting the NDA, did not attend the joint meeting as the Lok Sabha Speaker is yet to formally recognise the faction's merger under the NCPI banner. The NCPI held its first independent parliamentary party meeting on Sunday under the leadership of rebel TMC MP Sudeep Bandyopadhyay.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Bandyopadhyay said the group's seating arrangements, division numbers and separate legislative block had been accepted within the House. "Today, for the first time, the NCPI parliamentary party meeting was held. Our allotment of seats, division numbers and separate block have all been accepted. We have decided to extend our support to the NDA government, and whatever issues are tabled for discussion, we will take part in them. We also believe that the House should run, and if any difficulty is faced by any member as far as their constituency in West Bengal is concerned, we will take up the issue with the Chief Minister of West Bengal. Those issues are not to be brought to Delhi," he said.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament commenced on Monday and is scheduled to continue till August 13. (ANI)

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