145 Lok Sabha MPs Write to Speaker Seeking Curtailment of Budget Session to Focus on Polls

A total of 145 MPs from Lok Sabha have written to Speaker Om Birla, asking him to consider curtailment of the budget session of Parliament that started on Monday in the wake of the ensuing assembly polls.

The business advisory committee meeting of the Lok Sabha was held on Monday morning under the chairmanship of Birla.

Floor leaders of various political parties, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Congress, Deputy Lok Sabha leader for the Congress K Suresh, BJD represented by Anubhav Mohanty, Lallan Singh from JDU, Vinayak Raut from Shiv Sena, were among those who attended this meeting.

Representing the government were parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi, MoS Arjun Ram Meghwal and BJP chief whip Rakesh Singh.

No leaders from DMK and Trinamool Congress were present in this meeting. While the DMK has been asking for the curtailing of the session, Trinamool Congress parliamentary party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay has already written to Lok Sabha Speaker requesting for curtailing of the session in the wake of the assembly elections in four states- Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and one UT – Puducherry.

Sources say that Congress floor leader Chowdhury said it would be difficult for MPs to come for parliament when the session is on since they have to be out for campaigning.

However, parties like Bahujan Samaj Party and Biju Janata Dal argued that Parliament was a serious issue and a forum to raise people’s concerns and an exception should not be made as in a country like India, elections happen every month in some state or the other.

Sources say that the Lok Sabha Speaker also held one-on-one meetings with the floor leaders to get their sense on the issue.

Second part of the Budget session of Parliament is schedule to be held from March 8 to April 8. Elections in various states begin from March 27 and go on till the end of April while counting is on May 2.