BJP's Parleys, Cong-TMC's Game of One-upmanship: How Parties Are Prepping for Parl's Winter Session

As the winter session of the Parliament is about to begin, all parties are gearing up to take the floor with a slew of meetings, discussions happening among party members, and directives being given by leaders. Here’s what each political party has been up to in the past few days and what they are planning to do.

Ahead of Parliament’s Winter Session, PM Modi to Chair All-Party Meet Today

Before the Parliament’s Winter Session begins on Monday, the government has called an all-party meeting, to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to discuss and formulate agenda and strategies for the winter session.

Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu has organised a meet of Rajya Sabha floor leaders on Sunday evening to discuss the proceedings of the Winter Session. Naidu is the chairman of the Upper House of Parliament.

Congress Issues A Whip to MPs to Attend Day 1 in Both Houses

Congress on Friday issued a three-line directive to its MPs telling them to attend both Houses of the Parliament for the Winter Session from November 29. After the Centre repealed the three contentious farm laws as announced by Prime Minister Modi, the whip about attendance was issued by the Congress party to its members.

A media report claims that the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 is ‘already listed for introduction and passage, which seeks to repeal the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance, Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.’

BJP Too Has Issued Attendance Directive Because of Farm Laws

As BJP gears up to table the bill to repeal the three farm laws, which will be done by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in Parliament on Monday, and party too wants its members to be in full attendance and have, therefore, issued a whip to its Lok Sabha MPs to be present on the day. A similar order was given to its Rajya Sabha MPs earlier.

Speaker Birla to Meet Floor Leaders of Parties on November 29

With the aim to ensure a smooth Winter Session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will chair a meeting with the floor leaders of parties on November 29, sources said on Saturday. The meeting is likely to be held along with that of the business advisory committee of Lok Sabha, they said.

On November 26, almost all the opposition parties had boycotted the Constitution Day event organised by the Lok Sabha Secretariat in the Central Hall of Parliament. Birla expressed “pain” over the opposition parties boycotting the event.

Interacting with the media after the event, Birla had said that he would sit with the opposition and the ruling side to build a consensus for smooth functioning of the House. Sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat said the Speaker will meet the floor leaders of parties on Monday when the Winter Session of Parliament begins.

TMC ‘disinterested’ To Coordinate with Cong, May Skip Opposition Parties’ Nov 29 meet

The Trinamool Congress on Saturday said it is “disinterested” in coordinating with the Congress during the upcoming winter session of Parliament but maintained that it would cooperate with other opposition camps on various issues concerning people’s interest, a party leader said on Saturday. The TMC “most probably will not attend” the opposition parties’ meeting convened by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on November 29, he said.

According to an ANI tweet, Trinamool MP Sudip Banerjee even confirmed that TMC will not be a part of the Congress meeting.

The TMC’s rebuttal to the Congress came days after Kharge, the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, had said the grand old party would coordinate with all opposition camps, including the TMC, during the winter session.

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