President, not PM, should inaugurate new Parliament Building: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the President should inaugurate the new Parliament building and not the prime minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly-constructed Parliament Building on May 28.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla met Modi on Thursday last week and extended an invitation to inaugurate the new building, the Lok Sabha Secretariat had said.

Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said, "The President should inaugurate the new Parliament House and not the Prime Minister."

The inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28 coincides with the birth anniversary of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar and several opposition parties have targeted the government over it.

The Congress has called it a "complete insult" to the country's founding fathers.

The new Parliament building can comfortably seat 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber and 300 in the Rajya Sabha chamber, according to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

In the case of a joint sitting of both Houses, a total of 1,280 members can be accommodated in the Lok Sabha chamber.

The prime minister laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building on December 10, 2020.

The present Parliament Building was completed in 1927.