Opposition parties meet to formulate joint strategy for Winter Session

Opposition leaders on Thursday met to strategise for the upcoming winter session of Parliament.

The Winter Session is set to begin from December 15 to January 5 with a total of 14 working days.

The Congress is bracing to have a debate on the Rafale deal. The party has accused the government of buying the Rafale jets at an inflated cost. It claims that the UPA had negotiated the price at ₹526.1 crore per plane, while the NDA is now buying at the cost of ₹1570 crore per plane.

The Opposition parties will also take up farmers distress, GST and Demonetisation.

The session, that usually begins mid-November and ends before Christmas, has been much delayed this year.

Leaders of a large number of opposition parties, including the Congress, NCP, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), RJD, J-K National Conference and the Left parties met in the chamber of the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and discussed key issues to be raised in Parliament.

The government is expected to table 25 pending bills and 14 new ones, including a bill providing Muslim women the right to seek maintenance in case of triple talaq.

Another key bill will be granting constitutional status to the backward castes commission. The bill was stalled in the Rajya Sabha by the opposition in the last session.

With both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha likely to be adjourned tomorrow till Monday after paying tributes to their members who passed away during the inter-session period, the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh poll results could have a bearing on the session.

The results are scheduled to be announced on Monday.

OneIndia News