Govt explores holding special Parliament session next month

The Union government has expressed interest in convening a special session of Parliament next month to push through bills implementing delimitation and women’s reservation and has also started reaching out to some members of the National Democratic Alliance, people aware of developments said on Wednesday.

A senior leader of an NDA member said the government conveyed to their party that it was keen to pass the bills to clear the decks for women’s reservation, an issue that ranks high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda.

“Although no dates have been conveyed to us, we were given to understand that the government is keen to convene the session next month. The monsoon session has not yet been prorogued,” said the leader.

The BJP, TDP, JDU and the Shiv Sena did not respond to request for comment.

There was no official confirmation from the parliamentary affairs ministry on the dates for a possible special session and opposition parties said they were not informed. “This is kite flying. Nobody has approached the Congress party or said anything about such a session. I refuse to speculate about these things,” said Congress’s chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh.

In April this year, the constitution amendment bill to increase the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from 550 to 850 and link the women’s quota with the last published census failed to garner the required two-thirds majority.

At the time, the bill got 298 votes in favour and 230 against. Since then, 20 out of 28 Trinamool Congress lawmakers have said they’ll support the National Democratic Alliance and six of nine Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmakers have joined the Shiv Sena. But the Opposition still has more than the 181 votes required to deny the bill passage.

The monsoon session was adjourned sine die on August 13 but it has not yet been prorogued. Congress president Kharge wrote to PM on August 27 demanding an all party meeting to discuss proposed changes in the Delimitation related bills. He also asked that the current tally of the Lok Sabha to frozen for another 25 years.

The Union government has been reaching out to opposition parties to set aside political differences and support the legislation. Government’s managers are working behind the scenes to persuade the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which has 22 Lok Sabha MPs, to support the bills. It has also reached out to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar.