22 days Parliament Winter Session to be held from 15th December

New Delhi, November 24: As per early indications Winter Session of Parliament is starting from 15th December giving a rest to opposition’s speculations. Parliamentary Affairs minister Ananthkumar announced the decision after a meeting chaired by Rajnath Singh.

This Winter Session will have a total of 14 sittings over duration of 22 days. Minister Ananthkumar appealed to all Political Parties for fruitful and constructive discussions on important Bills and ensure smooth functioning of both the Houses of the Parliament.

Previously oppositions blamed ruling party for intentionally postponing the winter session due to Gujarat election. Gujarat Election will be held in two phases – on December 9 and December 14. The results will be declared on December 18.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley earlier assured that Parliament will have normal winter session but will avoid its overlapping with Gujarat and Himachal election. He said that during the elections the political parties directly address the people and normally the election dates and parliament session does not overlap.

While announcing the date Parliament affairs Minister also noted that it is not unprecedented that the schedule of the Parliament Session has been decided so as to avoid any overlap with the Assembly Elections in the States. This practice has been followed on many occasions by different Governments in the past.

Three Bills are to be taken up in the coming Winter session to replace three Ordinances viz., the Goods & Services Tax (Compensation to States) Ordinance, 2017, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017.