Rahul Gandhi, Key Congress Politicians Likely to Skip Parliament Session, Says Report

The Winter Session of Indian Parliament will begin on 7 December and end on 29 December. The first day of the session is usually occupied by parliamentarians paying their respects to members who have died since the last session.

Congress parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi and some other prominent members of his party are likely to skip the Winter Session of Parliament which begins on Wednesday, media reports said on Saturday.

According to media reports citing sources from Congress, the politicians who are likely to skip the session will be otherwise engaged in taking part in the party’s ongoing “Bharat Jodo Yatra” (Unite India Campaign).

Members likely to absent themselves include Jairam Ramesh, Digvijaya Singh and some other senior politicians of the party.

Sources said that the party leadership does not want focus pulled from “Bharat Jodo Yatra” and that is why senior leaders have decided to give the Winter Session a miss and continue with the Yatra.

The Winter Session of Parliament is due to begin on Wednesday and will be held in the old Parliament building. The start of the session had already been delayed by a month because of the ongoing Gujarat State Assembly elections.

Congress will hold a meeting on Saturday evening to decide on the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament). The meeting will be chaired by former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

In the previous session, Mallikarjun Kharge was leader of opposition but he resigned to fight the election to become party president as Congress adopted "one man, one post" policy.

The BJP-led federal government plans to introduce 16 new bills during the next session.