The government’s sudden announcement on Thursday that it will convene a special session of Parliament for five days between September 18 and 22 invited criticism from the opposition parties for not consulting them. The announcement also came on a day when a coalition of opposition parties, INDIA, were meeting in Mumbai for the third round of consultations to fight the ruling BJP unitedly. It added fuel to speculation of early general polls.
On Monday TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee had said, “I am apprehensive that they (BJP) could hold the Lok Sabha elections in December or in January next year.”
A day later, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar reiterated his Bengal counterpart’s claim that the BJP might bring forward the Lok Sabha elections in December and emphasised the need for the opposition parties to remain united.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said on ‘X’ that the special session called during “India’s most important festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is unfortunate and goes against the Hindu sentiments. Surprised at their choice of dates”.
TMC MP Saket Gokhale said that the decision to convene a special session of Parliament has come as the Prime Minister is ‘rattled’ by the INDIA parties. “Modi govt just announced that it’s suddenly convening a special session of Parliament from 18-22nd Sep. INDIA parties have rattled PM Modi so much that he’s now pulling off “8pm speech to the nation” stunts on Parliament. Let’s see if he himself attends this session at least,” Gokhale posted.
Another TMC MP Jawhar Sircar said that the special session has been called without any ‘consultation with opposition, no agenda known, no message from the Speaker or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha’. Sircar posted, “No consultation with opposition, no agenda known, no message from the Speaker or the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The Lord has summoned us all to be present in Parliament from 18th to 22nd September! Only a detective or astrologer can tell us — what next!”
There are other theories for early election going round in the opposition circles include, on one hand, rising inflation is going against the ruling party, on the other hand, initial indications from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are not favourable. There is also thinking that BJP does not want to give time to the opposition alliance to gain strength. Considering all these, it is believed that the BJP may club state polls with Lok Sabha election. However, only thing to note here is that newly constructed Ram temple is going to be inaugurated in January and it has huge political significance.
