New Delhi:
The Winter Session of Parliament will be held from November 25 to December 20, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said in a post on X Tuesday afternoon.
A special event – to be held in the Central Hall – will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution will be held on the second day of the session – November 26, or Constitution Day.
This will be the first Parliament after a round of four state elections, including the first in a decade in Jammu and Kashmir in which the BJP finished behind the National Conference-Congress alliance. The BJP, however, secured some revenge by retaining Haryana for a historic third successive term.
The third and fourth elections – for Maharashtra, where the BJP is allied with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction and the NCP group led by Ajit Pawar, and Jharkhand, where Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, a member of the Congress-led INDIA bloc, is in power – will be held next week.
Hon’ble President, on the recommendation of Government of India, has approved the proposal for summoning of both the Houses of Parliament for the Winter Session, 2024 from 25th November to 20th December, 2024 (subject to exigencies of parliamentary business). On 26th November,… pic.twitter.com/dV69uyvle6
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) November 5, 2024
Among the big-ticket bills likely to be tabled and/or debated or discussed are contentious amendments to the Waqf Bill and provisions for the government’s ambitious ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal.
The amendments to the Waqf Bill are currently being studied by a joint parliamentary committee headed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jagadambika Pal.
The committee is supposed to submit its report to Parliament by November 29.
However, the functioning of the JPC has been roiled in controversy after opposition MPs wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker this week warning that they could ‘dissociate’ themselves from the panel.
READ | Opposition MPs Write To Lok Sabha Speaker Over Waqf Bill Committee
The MPs accused Mr Pal of taking decisions regarding meeting dates and summons for consultations – unilaterally, and called his actions a “forceful way to mitigate (protests) and pass changes.
Last month Union Home Minister Amit Shah had indicated this bill could be tabled and passed in the next sitting of Parliament (referring to the Winter Session).
As far as the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal goes, a committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind cleared the way forward in March, submitting a report that proposed simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the first step.
The HindkeshariExplains | ‘One Nation, One Election’. What Is It, How It Can Work
The ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal was part of the BJP’s manifesto in 2019, but has drawn heavy criticism from the opposition, who have red-flagged constitutional issues.
In the last Parliament session, the Monsoon Session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget and MPs discussed various issues, including the landslides in Wayanad in Kerala.