TMC to attend INDIA bloc meet on Saturday

According to a source, the Mamata Banerjee-led party, which is busy preparing for its July 21 Martyrs' Day rally, will skip an all-party meeting on Sunday.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will attend a meeting of the INDIA opposition bloc on Saturday, the party has said.

Initially the TMC was to skip the INDIA bloc meeting that was to be hosted in Delhi. (Utpal Sarkar)

According to a source, the Mamata Banerjee-led party, which is busy preparing for its July 21 Martyrs' Day rally, will skip an all-party meeting on Sunday, ahead of the commencement of the Monsoon session of Parliament.

While initially the TMC was to skip the INDIA bloc meeting that was to be hosted in Delhi, now that it is going to be held online, Abhishek Banerjee will join it, the party said in a short statement on Friday.

July 21 is observed by the TMC as Martyrs' Day, in memory of 13 Congress supporters who were shot dead by the Kolkata Police in 1993 during a march to the state secretariat -- the Writers' Building -- when the CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power in West Bengal.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the state Youth Congress chief at that time and she continued to mark the day by holding a rally every year even after forming the TMC on January 1, 1998.

The online meeting of the leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will be held on Saturday evening to discuss the prevailing political situation in the country.

The meeting comes right before the Monsoon session of Parliament, which starts on Monday. It will be held after a long gap since the constituents of the opposition bloc last deliberated on the country's political situation jointly.