Rajya Sabha LOPCong gambit to shore up numbers to save postThe switchover of Kesava Rao from the Bharat Rashtra Party to Congress is part of the grand old party’s plan to improve its tally in the Rajya Sabha to retain the post of Leader of the Opposition in the House. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge currently holds the post of LOP. But after the election of party leaders KC Venugopal and Deepender Singh Hooda to the Lok Sabha in the recent elections and their subsequent resignation from the Rajya Sabha, the Congress strength in the Upper House has come down to 26, just one more than the minimum 25 members required to qualify for the post. A day after joining Congress, Keshav Rao resigned as a BRS member of the Rajya Sabha. This has caused a vacancy from Telangana, which will be filled up by the Congress given its numbers in the state assembly. According to sources, Congress is trying to get more members from other parties from Telangana and Karnataka to resign and get them elected on its ticket.BRICS SummitRussia, China to insist on common currencyBRICS president Russia and its close strategic and business ally China are likely to push for the launch of BRICS currency or the settlement of payments among member countries in their national currencies. Sources said that the payment settlement mechanism will be the central theme of the summit, scheduled to be held in the historic city of Kazan in the Tatarstan state of Russia from October 22-24, 2024. The five-member BRICS, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, now has now been expanded to ten full members. The five new entrants are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. About 30 other countries are ready to join the grouping.The joint statement issued after the meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers on June 10, this year underscored the importance of enhanced use of local currencies in trade and financial transactions between member countries. Russia, in its capacity as the current BRICS president, is likely to insist on the development of an alternative payment mechanism and payment platform to come out of the payment crisis faced by the country due to Western sanctions.
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