PM Modi and Rahul attending fewer all-party meetings

For over a week now, opposition parties led by the Congress have been clamouring for the Government to convene an all-party meet on proposed amendments to advance the rollout of women's reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies by two years to 2029.

The government is yet to heed the demand but it did call a meeting of all parties in Parliament on potential long-term impacts of the West Asia war.

Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi attended this meeting which Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired on March 26.

Quite evidently, the ruling BJP and the Congress blamed one another for attaching little importance to the crucial agenda and questioned the absence of top leaders of the two outfits at the important gathering.

That said, the development did not come as a surprise to those who have been closely watching the national political landscape over the years.

The once powerful institution of the all party meeting has been in slow decline for a while now.

The last all party meeting prime minister Narendra Modi chaired was in December 2022 on India's G 20 presidency.

Although the current BJP led NDA government compares favourably with the previous ones on the number of all party meetings convened, these assemblies are progressively being chaired by senior ministers appointed by the PM rather than the prime minister himself.

The NDA government under PM Modi has convened 39 all party meetings so far.

This number includes the customary gatherings held at the start of every Parliament session.

Official records meanwhile show 31 all party meetings were convened by late Atal Behari Vajpayee during six years that he headed the NDA government at different points of time.

Under PM Manmohan Singh, nearly 20 all party meetings were held during the UPA regime.

Since 2014, if parliament session meetings are to be included, the BJP government has held 39.

Although in the initial years of the NDA government, the Prime Minister would himself chair pre-session meetings, the trend later changed.

Of late PM Modi has been chairing a select set of all party meetings, choosing to appoint Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is also deputy leader of the House in Lok Sabha, to lead the others.

Rajnath Singh chaired the latest March 26 all party meeting on the West Asia crisis and earlier even the meeting of all political parties in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

An analysis of all party meetings shows PM Modi chaired the following of late -- a meeting of all CMs and LGs to discuss the West Asia crisis (on March 27, 2026), India's G 20 presidency (in December of 2022); on Jammu and Kashmir situation after the abrogation of Article 370 and state's bifurcation (in June 2021); pre-monsoon Parliament session meeting (in July 2021); a virtual meeting in Covid 19 ahead of the Budget Session (in January 2021); all party meeting on the India-China standoff (in June 2020); a meeting of floor leaders of all parties to discuss Covid 19 (December 2020), an all party meet on Covid lockdown (in April of 2020) and and another on One Nation One Election agenda (in June 2019).

From the opposition side too, Rahul Gandhi, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been appointing nominees to attend pre Parliament session all party meetings instead of going himself. The Congress at such meetings is mostly represented by Rajya Sabha's Pramod Tiwari (deputy leader) and Jairam Ramesh (Chief Whip) or Lok Sabha's Gaurav Gogoi (deputy leader) and K Suresh (chief whip).