NDA parliamentary party meetings to be called ‘Mangal Milan’, sources say

The NDA’s parliamentary party meetings, in which MPs of the ruling coalition’s constituents participate, will now be called ‘Mangal Milan’ as they are generally held on Tuesdays, according to sources.

The first meeting under the new nomenclature will be held on July 21 in the Parliament House complex, a day after the start of the Monsoon session.

“The NDA parliamentary party meeting will now be known as Mangal Milan, starting with the July 21 meeting,” a source said.

According to sources, the matter was also discussed at the last meeting of the Union Cabinet, where informally the ministers were conveyed about the renaming of the NDA parliamentary party meeting.

The government has conveyed an all-party meeting on Sunday, ahead of Parliament’s Monsoon session.

Sources said that the floor leaders of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) may also be invited to attend the all party meeting if it is formally recognised by Speaker Om Birla.

Lok Sabha MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who left the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined NCPI, are likely to be the floor leader and chief whip respectively of the little-known outfit.

The two MPs from West Bengal, who revolted against the TMC leadership along with 18 other parliamentarians last month and subsequently announced that they had joined the NCPI, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday and discussed seating arrangements for the party’s 20 MPs in the Lower House, sources said.

During their meeting with the speaker, NCPI leaders also discussed the allotment of a party office in the new Parliament building, the sources added.

The MPs who have switched to NCPI have informed Birla that they have designated Bandyopadhyay as their floor leader, Satabdi Roy as the deputy leader and Ghosh Dastidar as the chief whip.