Cabinet panel to decide session date

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) will meet on March 30 to decide the date of the next Parliament session in which a comprehensive Bill to re-define office of profit will be brought, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said today.

Emerging from a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this afternoon, he said the CCPA would meet after the Cabinet meeting.

Dasmunshi has, in the past two days, held talks with major political parties to elicit their views and reach a consensus on the issue. "We are hopeful we will resolve it without any confrontation," he said.

An all-party meeting, favoured by all parties except the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, is also likely to be called. All parties agree that there is a need to change the existing law on office of profit.

The CCPA will decide whether to amend the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, or to bring a new Bill.

The issue has thrown most parties in a tizzy. While the Congress is taking a high moral ground after the resignation of Sonia Gandhi from the Lok Sabha and the National Advisory Council, many other party MPs, including ministers, are facing allegations of holding offices of profit. It is also facing a problem in states, especially Uttaranchal, where the Opposition has accused 13 of its MLAs of holding offices of profit.

The Opposition BJP, which launched a high-voltage campaign against the Congress president, is on the backfoot now, with three of the party chief ministers, in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and dozens of MLAs, accused of holding offices of profit.

The NDA regime in Jharkhand is faced with the prospect of losing majority in the Assembly.

The same goes for the Left parties. Ten CPI(M) MPs, including Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, have been accused of holding offices of profit.