#Monsoon Session Of Parliament : Stage Ready For A Stormy One Between Government And Opposition; NEET Paper Leak, Ram Temple Theft, Women’s Reservation Bill Etc To Set Fire Works

Picture : ANI/X

The government and the opposition are gearing up for another stormy session of Parliament from Monday with several crucial bills likely to be taken up, including the earlier-defeated Constitution Amendment Bill on delimitation though it is not yet listed in the legislative agenda.

The new session, with changed political equations following fractures in the opposition ranks, will open in the shadow of several raging issues like the planned march to Parliament by the Cockroach Janta Party and the row over the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Both issues have been used by the opposition to target the government, which, according to sources, is also likely to be in a “combative mode” and its “priority” would be the passage of bills during the monsoon session.

The CJP, which has been holding a sit-in at Jantar Mantar, barely 2-3 km from the Parliament House, on Saturday escalated its protest for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the alleged NEET paper leak after police whisked away activist Sonam Wangchuk to hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike.

The stage for confrontation on the delimitation-women reservation agenda was set this week after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an all-party meeting.

With BJP-led NDA strategists actively working to shore up a two-thirds majority required to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill to implement women’s reservation and delimitation of constituencies, the principal opposition Congress is planning to mount a counter-offensive.

Ahead of the monsoon session, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday approved the merger of six Shiv Sena-UBT MPs with the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and allowed separate seating for the 20 rebel Trinamool Congress lawmakers, who have joined a little-known party, Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Official sources said that with the merger of the six MPs, the strength of the Shiv Sena has gone up to 13. The TMC rebel groups of 20 MPs will seat separately, away from the parent party, the sources said.

No final decision has been taken on the demand of the rebel TMC MPs to be recognised as part of the NCPI, and the matter is still under consideration, they said.

The TMC and the Shiv Sena-UBT had demanded the disqualification of the rebel MPs.

The rebel TMC MPs are also likely to attend Sunday’s all-party meeting.

The Lok Sabha Speaker had earlier met a TMC delegation headed by its leader Abhishek Banerjee as well as the party’s breakaway group. A similar exercise was also carried out with regard to the Shiv Sena- UBT.