Winter Session of Parliament slated for Dec 15 to Jan 5
The Winter Session of the Parliament will begin a day after the second phase of voting for the Gujarat Assembly elections.
New Delhi: The Winter Session of Parliament is scheduled to be held from December 15 to January 5, a day after the second phase of voting for Gujarat election.
The 14th Gujarat legislative Assembly election will be held in two phases; December 9 and December 14.
The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) met in the Parliament on Friday morning to finalise the schedule and agenda of the Winter Session.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Winter Session will be of 14 days with December 25 and 26 being Christmas holidays.
"I request political parties to cooperate and make the Winter Session successful and fruitful. We expect that we will have attendance on all 14 days, including the New Year's day," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was earlier being targeted by the Opposition for not declaring the dates of the Winter Session of the Parliament.
At the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday, party president Sonia Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister over the Winter Session.
Sonia said, "Modi government in arrogance has cast dark shadow on India's Parliamentary democracy by sabotaging Winter Session on flimsy grounds. The government is mistaken if it thinks by locking temple of democracy; it'll escape constitutional accountability ahead of elections."
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also slammed the government for allegedly shying away from facing questions in the Winter Session ahead of Gujarat Assembly elections in December.
Azad said the government was deliberately delaying the session to hide its corruption and failures on the employment and economic fronts.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday hit back at Congress for the accusation and said he was shocked to see Congress' growing affection towards dignity of the Parliament, while taking a jibe at party vice-president Rahul Gandhi's attendance in the Lok Sabha.