Ahead of winter session, all-party meet held in Delhi; Modi, Amit Shah in attendance

New Delhi, Nov 17: Ahead of Parliament's winter session, an all-party meeting was held in New Delhi on Friday which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and several senior opposition leaders.

The meeting was also attended by Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot, Congress' leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and deputy leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma. TMC leader Derek O Brien, LJP leader Chirag Paswan and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, Telugu Desam Party Jayadev Galla and V Vijaysai Reddy were among those present at the meeting.

The meeting was called by the government and moderated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Meghwal. Lok Sabha Speaker.

Om Birla had on Saturday appealed to all political parties for cooperation for ensuring smooth functioning of the House. After an all-party meeting, which was also attended by PM Modi, the Speaker said floor leaders of different parties mentioned various issues that they wished to be discussed during the winter session, beginning November 18 till December 13. There will be 20 sittings in this session.

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, economic slowdown, unemployment and the government's plan to bring the Citizenship bill are some of the issues which are likely to emerge as flashpoints between the opposition and treasury benches in the Winter session of Parliament beginning Monday.

Besides the passage of the Citizenship (amendment) bill, the government also plans to convert two crucial ordinances into law during the session. One ordinance reducing corporate tax rate for new and domestic manufacturing companies to arrest slowdown in the economy and boost growth was issued in September to give effect to amendments in the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Finance Act, 2019.

The first session of the government was very productive which saw both houses passing key legislations such as the one to penalise the practice of instant triple talaq and the other giving more powers to the National Investigation Agency. The two Houses also passed a resolution scrapping special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

In the session beginning from Monday, the government is set to push for the passage of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a key BJP plank which is aimed at granting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries.