Parliament to be adjourned, reconvened for ‘very important bill’ soon: Rijiju

The government said on Thursday that Parliament will be adjourned and reconvened before the end of this round of assembly elections. Kiren Rijiju says Parliament will reconvene soon for a “very important” bill, with speculation around women’s reservation legislation ahead of polls. (Sansad TV/ANI Video Grab)

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju told Rajya Sabha that Parliament will be adjourned and reconvened to discuss a “very important” bill, without giving the details of the bill or the dates for the extended budget session.

Rijiju said, “We have certain important issues, we have shared this with the Opposition also. We are going to have a very important bill in the next 2-3 weeks”.

There is speculation that the House will go into a recess and reconvene after April 15 for a short duration during which the government will introduce and pass the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, also known as the women’s reservation bill that seeks to reserve 33% seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures.

Tamil Nadu goes to the polls on April 23 and West Bengal on April 23 and 29.

Rijiju was responding to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s questions on whether the ongoing budget session will be extended or adjourned sine die.

Ramesh said that the government should concede the Opposition’s demand for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue and reconvene the session only after assembly elections are over on April 29.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Congress supports the idea of reservation for women in legislatures, but the proposed bills have long-term implications and accused the government of politicising the issue, which led Rijiju to deny the charge and reiterate the government’s promise to women to increase their participation in legislatures.

The provision, which is supposed to roll out ahead of the 2029 general elections, is being delinked from the census and the so-called delimitation process, with an amendment to the effect.

The move could see the number of seats in the Lok Sabha increase to 816 of which 273 will be reserved for women, and the proportional representation of each state will remain the same.

The budget session which began on January 28, was initially scheduled to conclude on April 2.