Parliament’s Winter Session to be held from December 15 to January 5

The Winter session of Parliament will be held from December 15 to January 5, the cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs declared on Friday amid indications that the Opposition was planning to raise issues such as demonetisation, GST glitches and the Rafale deal to attack the government.

The Parliament session will begin a day after the second and final phase of polling for the Gujarat assembly election.

“This will be a 14-day session, 25th and 26th December will be Christmas holidays,” parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said.

Hindustan Times reported on Thursday that the dates of the session had earlier been finalised but not declared as they were sent to President Ram Nath Kovind for his approval.

The decision to extend the session beyond Christmas will give at least 14 working days to the government to push its agenda. While the introduction of a bill to ban triple talaq is high on its priority list, it is also keen to push the Labour Code, the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill and several other pending legislations.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the government for delay in announcing the dates, alleging that the ruling dispensation is afraid to face Parliament.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley earlier told journalists that the session would not overlap with the Gujarat assembly elections and it would be a “regular” session.

Jaitley took potshots at rivals and said the BJP would be busy with the Gujarat poll campaign but he was not sure if its opponents would also be busy.

Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, told ANI that the opposition party would raise important issues like Goods and Services and Tax, demonetisation, Jammu and Kashmir issue, terrorism and Hafiz Saeed being set free by Pakistan.