Winter session of Parliament likely from Nov 20

The Government has tentatively fixed November 20 for the winter session of Parliament. The schedule has been, however, kept under wraps until the Election Commission announces the dates of the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections.

Sources said it would be only a short session of three weeks as the Budget session is to start just after a month, in the third week of January, for early presentation and passing of the budget alike this year.

Gujarat election is crucial for Prime Minister Modi as he and most of his senior ministers will be tied up in the poll campaign, making it difficult for them to give much time to the Parliament session.

Some part of the campaign period is bound to fall when Parliament is in session and hence the government may even reduce the session to just two weeks, citing another session already due in another month, sources said.

While Gujarat election is the Government’s prime concern, Himachal Pradesh is on the priority so far as the Election Commission is concerned. The EC sources said the Himachal elections may be held early since the state will be in the grip of extremely cold wave and heavy snowfall by November end and the Lahaul-Spiti district may even become inaccessible by early December.

Elections in some constituencies may be deferred for a couple of months due to the weather conditions, the sources said.

While on a Gujarat visit to check the poll preparations, Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti has already said that the elections will be held in December but he cannot give a firm date.

The one-day Gujarat elections are most likely to take place in the first week of December as already disclosed by BJP President Amit Shah on Porbandar on October 2 and he must be privy to it as the ruling party president and also because the BJP in power in both the Centre and Gujarat whose governments are usually consulted by the EC to meet its security requirements for the elections.

The schedule has been, however, kept under wraps until the Election Commission announces the dates of the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections.