New Delhi: With results of assembly polls in five states including the politically crucial Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan scheduled to be announced on December 11, the Winter session of Parliament is likely to be a curtailed one and could be held from December 10 till December 21, having a total of only 10 sittings.
According to highly placed sources, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh will meet on November 12 to finalise the dates for the Winter session. They added that the committee is likely to finalise the December 10-December 21 set of dates during the meeting.
The CCPA is also likely to discuss some more dates like holding the session between December 15 and January 5, 2019, just like it happend last year when the previous Winter session had taken place between December 15, 2017 and January 5, 2018. However there is a strong likelihood that the panel may stick with December 10-21 set of dates, sources said.
With the results of the five assembly polls likely to coincide with the Winter session, political observers said that their ramifications could lead to high drama as the Congress has upped the ante against the BJP over the Rafale deal and the party's president Rahul Gandhi has been constantly raising it in all his rallies in the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the elections are to be held this month itself.
The Opposition led by the Congress has been seeking a joint Parliamentary committee's probe into the Rafale deal and in case the party manages to put up a good show in the forthcoming polls, then it could go ballistic against the ruling BJP during the Winter session.
Considering the fact that it could be the last major session of Parliament prior to the Lok Sabha polls of 2019 and the government may only come out with an interim budget in February next year, sources privy to developments said that there is not much keenness within the government spheres to have a three-week long session.
At the same time though the Winter session assumes significance as an ordinance for the Triple Talaq Bill is on the Centre's legislative agenda. The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha but is hanging fire in Rajya Sabha. Besides, the ordinance for disbanding the Medical Council of India is also on the list.
While Chhattisgarh will have elections in two phases i.e. on November 12 and November 20 respectively, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will go to polls on November 28. Rajasthan and Telangana will have assembly elections on December 7 while results for all the five states will come out on December 11, 2018.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh heads the CCPA which also comprises of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj,
Minister for Chemical & Fertilisers as well as Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar, Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot, and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.
