Parliament special session: Caught by surprise, Opp in Mumbai steps on the gas on Plan 2024

Some Congress leaders, including Jairam Ramesh, called it “managing the news cycle, Modi style” to deflect attention from the Opposition meeting and the fresh revelations on the Adani group. Rahul Gandhi said the move betrayed “a little panic.”

But the move became a hot topic of discussion at the informal meeting of Opposition leaders in Mumbai with most leaders who spoke underlining the need for parties to fast-track their unity efforts.

Sources said Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray said it was surprising that the special session coincides with Ganesh Utsav in Maharashtra and argued that the BJP government has something up its sleeve. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who earlier this week said that the BJP could advance Lok Sabha elections, said the Opposition parties should speed up their efforts.

Sources said AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Opposition parties should fast-track seat sharing talks and try to announce the joint candidate arrangement by September 30.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the parties should identify the key points which should become part of the joint manifesto and announce it on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.

Clearly, there was a sense of urgency among the Opposition parties as many felt the Government was “up to something.” The Opposition bloc decided to announce several committees Friday itself, the main one being the coordination committee. Sources said there would be smaller committees to plan joint public programmes, research and analysis, common spokespersons and identifying common issues.

Asked about the speculation that the session could see contentious Bills on synchronized elections, uniform civil code and providing 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and legislatures, a senior Congress MP said. “We don’t know whether they will advance elections…but they can surely say that ‘we tried our best to bring synchronized elections and UCC but the opposition stalled’. They may try to make it an issue in the election.”

Another leader said the government could actually be looking at advancing elections.

One leader said the government could be planning to “bring in some high-impact legislation.”

“There was no need to convene a special session. They have to overcome the Constitutional requirement that the maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months. I think they may be planning to dispense with the Winter Session… We are staring at a drought in most of the states. Food inflation is already 11.5 per cent. I think the September numbers will be 12 plus. So, we may be looking at the highest ever food inflation at the time of elections which no government can afford,” the leader said.

A senior JD(U) leader speculated that the BJP could even explore getting the Maharashtra and Haryana Assemblies dissolved where elections are due in October next year, months after the Lok Sabha elections. There is already buzz in Odisha that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik could advance the Assembly elections. Polls in the state were held along with Lok Sabha elections in 2019. In 2019, Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh too were held along with Lok Sabha. While the BJP is in power in Arunachal, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh are governed by friendly parties.

Asked about the special session, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said: “It is typical over-dramatics. You don’t share the agenda when a Parliament session is announced, keep people guessing; set the agenda through leaks; minimise notice period and opportunity; and never discuss nitty gritties where both god and devil reside…these are the hallmark characteristics of the BJP-NDA Modi government.”