Today in Politics: Stage set for fireworks in Parliament over NEET paper leak; Ajit Pawar to unveil last Budget before polls

Parliament is likely to witness a fiery day on Friday as the leaders of the Opposition INDIA alliance have decided to raise the issue of alleged paper leaks and irregularities in exams like the NEET-UG strongly in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

The Opposition MPs would move adjournment motions in both Houses in this regard on Friday, demanding a debate on the NEET issue before starting a discussion on the motion of thanks on the President’s address to Parliament, sources said.

The leaders of the INDIA bloc took the decision at their meeting held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Thursday. Besides the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule (both from the NCP-SP), Derek O’Brien (TMC), Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-UBT), Sanjay Singh, Sandeep Pathak (both AAP), N K Premachandran (RSP) and Mahua Majhi (JMM) attend the meeting.

The INDIA alliance leaders have also decided to hold a protest on Monday morning before the parliamentary proceedings start, to rake up the issue of alleged “political vendetta” against the Opposition leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, and three West Bengal ministers, through agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income-Tax (I-T) department, sources said.

On Thursday, while addressing both Houses of Parliament in the first session after the recent Lok Sabha polls, President Droupadi Murmu made a pointed reference to a major cause of concern for millions of people – alleged paper leaks and irregularities leading to cancellation of UGC-NET, postponement of CSIR UGC-NET and NEET PG, and some retests of NEET (UG) 2024. T