New Delhi, July 17: Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar may have taken back his resignation as railway minister but he will face Opposition ire along with his party chief Defence Minister George Fernandes in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning next week for a spate of rail mishaps and crashes involving MIGs dubbed "flying coffins". Kumar has been under attack for the last few months following a series of rail accidents and opposition intends to raise the issue in Parliament to put the government on the mat, highly placed Congress sources said.

Opposition also has plans to subject Fernandes to attack on the issue of defence preparedness of the country in the wake of revelations that a huge amount of Rs 24,000 crore allocated to his ministry had remained unspent in the last three years and also the recurring MIG fighter jet crashes. Major opposition parties have been boycotting the defence minister in Parliament for the last two years as he rejoined the cabinet before being cleared by the commission set up to probe the Tehelka expose.

Plans are also afoot to seek a discussion on the Tehelka issue as also on the Subramanian committee report on Kargil which identified "grave intelligence failures" and made a series of far reaching recommendations to protect the border. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is also leader of the opposition, held a strategy session with senior party leaders yesterday and has convened a meeting with opposition leaders on July 20 to discuss floor strategy.

Bureau Report