Govt planning brief House session in mid-November

A short Parliament session slightly ahead of schedule is planned for mid-November, UPA's parliamentary managers have told Business Standard.

The highlight of the session is going to be the Gujarat election and the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, willy nilly making it a challenging and politically exciting event.

The BJP had voiced a demand that is never going to be conceded because rules don't allow it "" that the nuclear deal be discussed under a rule that entails voting.

The rationale of the UPA is that there has been generally a favourable atmosphere on the accord in the BJP-ruled state and the government is toying with the idea of exploiting it ahead of the December Assembly polls.

A proposal for a two-week long winter session around November 15 is being talked about. Generally, the winter session starts from the third week of November and concludes before Christmas. But this time, the session is likely to be advanced by a few days.

Some political parties are keen on convening the session before time in order to go for campaigning for Gujarat polls, to be held on December 11 and 16, while some others want the session to be held after the Assembly elections.

The government has already expressed its readiness to convene a special session to discuss the nuclear deal as part of addressing the concerns of its Left allies.

The ruling alliance has been telling the Left parties that it is all for a discussion on the nuclear accord, but they have to ensure that the BJP does not derail the proceedings in Parliament.

Proceedings during the monsoon session were stalled for several days with the BJP paralysing the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into the nuclear issue.

In the winter session, however, the so-called Third Front, which was also vociferous in seeking a JPC, will not support this demand.

The constituents of the Third Front had their own meeting today. Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is the convenor of the Front known as United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), told reporters that if the majority in Parliament was against the deal then the government should not go ahead.