Winter Session likely after Guj elections

NEW DELHI: The upcoming Winter Session of Parliament may start in the first week of December, after voting is completed in the Gujarat assembly elections, two senior officials said on Friday. Though the government is yet to finalise the schedule, the session may run at least till the third week of December, a third top functionary said.

While the Winter Session usually starts in the middle of November, this time the two largest parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, are busy with the Himachal and Gujarat elections. The polling for Himachal Pradesh is on November 12, the two-phase polling in Gujarat will be held on December 1 and 5. The results for both elections will be announced on December 8.

No formal meeting has taken place so far to fix the schedule, but informal consultations have started among the stakeholders, said the first official. “The government is planning to hold the session in first week of December, possibly on 6 or 7. and the session might continue till December 29,” said a second official.

The third functionary said: “The session will run through most of December.”

The exact schedule will be worked out after the floor managers speak to leaders of other political parties.

A section of the establishment has kept open the possibility of starting the session in Novemberend. “But the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs is yet to meet and the consultations with all Opposition parties are not over,” said the first functionary.

After the Covid-19 disease spread across India in March 2020, the Budget Session, which was going on at the time, was curtailed by seven days. Thereafter, all Parliament sessions have been curtailed by at least a few days, and the 2020 winter session could not be held at all.

Even as the new Parliament building is not entirely ready to regular host sessions at this point, a fourth functionary added that a special event — as part of a soft launch — is likely to be held in the new building on December 20. The Prime Minister, however, is unlikely to inaugurate the building until it becomes fully functional.

Last year, the session was held between November 21 and December 22. In 2018, the Winter Session started on December 11 and ended on January 9, 2019.

The upcoming session is expected to see the government bringing a new bill to replace the current legislation on personal data security. More than 30 bills are pending before the House, including The Electricity (Amendment) Bill, The Competition (Amendment) Bill, The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Amendment) Bill, The Mediation Bill, and The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill.

THE EXACT SCHEDULE WILL BE WORKED OUT AFTER THE FLOOR MANAGERS SPEAK TO LEADERS OF OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES

FILE Informal consultations have started to fix the schedule, an official said.