As Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday sought Government and Opposition to cooperate in making Winter Session productive and successful, 45 bills are set to be part of the session that is set to witness much fireworks between the treasury and Opposition.
The controversial bill on triple talaq on which Government brought an ordinance will again be tested on the floor of the upper house where it could not be passed in the last session. Besides this, two other ordinances will also be replaced by the bills including Indian medical council (amendment) bill, 2018, and the companies ordinance (amendment) bill, 2018.
The last of the session of the 16th Lok Sabha will run for 29 days with 20 sittings which are expected to be full of political attacks and counter-attacks before the leaders set themselves into full campaign mode for the Lok Sabha polls which are only few months away.
The controversy over the purchase of Rafale fighter jet will also rock the session with the Congress taking its attack on the issue inside the Parliament. The Ram temple would be the Government's issue with one of its Rajya Sabha members expected to introduce a private member's bill in the upper house to force opposition take a stand on the politically sensitive issue.
According to leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha , Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Opposition made it clear during the meeting that it will press for a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Rafale jet deal and raise several issues, including the "misuse" of probe agencies and autonomy for RBI
Addressing an all-party meet on Monday convened ahead of the Winter session, Prime Minister assured the Opposition that the Government was willing to discuss all issues, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said quoting the Prime Minister at the meeting.
The Government is also understood t to have suggested that both the Houses could work late to transact important legislative business and discuss important issues.
The Prime Minister was of the view that both the Government and the Opposition have to cooperate in running the House smoothly as it was in the interest of the people.
"It is a prime responsibility for all of us to contribute to the service of the nation and its people by ensuring smooth functioning of the Parliament", Modi said.
The Minister said Modi also told leaders from various parties that the Government is willing to discuss all issues. There was a consensus that disruption should be avoided and deadlock to be resolved with discussions, Government claimed.
Two-minute silence was observed by all the leaders to pay homage to former Cabinet Minister Ananth kumar.
The Centre will bring supplementary demands for grants in the session through which it will seek Parliament nod for more expenditure.