New Delhi: As multi-party delegations remain abroad to convey India’s collective resolve following the military conflict with Pakistan, opposition members of the INDIA bloc are working on making a concerted demand for a special session of parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent developments, including Operation Sindoor.The demand for a special session had earlier been raised by several opposition parties separately, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI(ML) Liberation),and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians, mostly tourists, were killed. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government is yet to pay heed to these demands, it has sent multi-party delegations abroad in seven teams to “project India’s national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all forms and manifestations”. The diplomatic outreach comes after Operation Sindoor and the four-day-long tense military conflict with Pakistan.“We, the parties who are fighting the BJP, are working together and moving ahead together on the demand for a special session of Parliament,” said Derek O’Brien, TMC’s parliamentary leader in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.In response to a question by The Wire at a press conference in New Delhi, Congress MP and the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, also said that the INDIA bloc leaders are in “talks” about demanding a special session.“Rahul Gandhi has made the demand for a special session very clear. I believe Tejashwi Yadav has also made this demand in various public forums. I have read the statement of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. And therefore we are in talks with our INDIA allies on this matter,” said Gogoi.The TMC also reiterated its demand for a special session on Wednesday at a press conference addressed by its Rajya Sabha deputy leader, Sagarika Ghose and Lok Sabha deputy leader, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. The party said that the session must be convened in June instead of waiting for the monsoon session, which usually takes place in July.“We have always given our full support to the government after the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. Then the MPs delegations went abroad to explain India’s position to the world and convey our collective resolve. We sent our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, which shows how serious we are in cooperating with the government. We have been unequivocal in our condemnation of Pakistan based terror,” Ghose said.“We now believe that having given our full support to the government, we now believe that having given full support to the government, we are now supporting the demand first made by MP Kapil Sibal, that there must be a special session of Parliament,” she added.The TMC had last week sent five-member delegations to the border areas of Poonch and Rajouri, which have been affected by the shelling from Pakistan. Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, too, has since visited the border areas and met the affected civilians.“In a parliamentary democracy the government must come, take the opposition into confidence, take the people of the nation into confidence now that overseas audiences have heard the Indian point of view, it is time citizens of India heard government’s point of view and answer questions we have been raising in the national interest,” Ghose said.Last month, at least four letters were written to the Union government demanding a special session in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha wrote to Modi, while CPI MP P. Sandosh Kumar wrote to Kiren Rijiju, the parliamentary affairs minister. On Tuesday, TMC said it has also penned a letter to Modi demanding a special session.