Budget session: NDA-Congress battle shifts to Parliament
The NDA government is looking at pushing through key reform initiatives, such as GST, and Parliament ‘s smooth functioning will hold the key to it
Senior leaders of the NDA believe that the Congress along with some opposition parties could try to stall the proceedings in Parliament. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/ Mint
New Delhi: After the bitter political battle between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Congress in the recently-concluded five assembly elections in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi came out victorious in most states, the arena of the battle has now shifted to Parliament where the second half of the budget session is on.
Senior leaders of the NDA believe that the Congress party along with some opposition parties could try to stall the proceedings of Parliament because the opposition party lost the chance to form a government in Goa and Manipur to NDA.
“The numbers are in favour of the BJP-led NDA. We have the majority along with smaller parties, but Congress leaders feel that they should have been given an opportunity to form the government in these two states. The case is coming up for hearing in the Supreme court, till then it is difficult to say what will happen,” said a senior NDA leader, who did not want to be named.
The NDA leader quoted above argued that while the opposition leaders, especially those from the Congress party, can claim that there is a set convention that single largest party is called to prove majority on the floor of the house. “Conventions are for Parliament and legislative assemblies, courts look at numbers and not conventions. BJP has the numbers in both Manipur and Goa,” the NDA leader added.
The budget session of Parliament resumes after a brief Holi festival break on Tuesday. The results of the five state assembly elections were announced on Saturday.
“The developments in the past two days have been undemocratic and unbecoming of any political party. We are fighting it legally but Parliament is the strongest forum to raise our voice. We will take up these issues on Tuesday in both Houses of Parliament,” a senior Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.
As the second half of budget session began on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government was making all efforts to get cooperation of all political parties for the smooth passage of four supporting bills related to the implementation of goods and services tax (GST).
The BJP-led government is looking at pushing through key reform initiatives in the second half of the session and smooth functioning of Parliament will hold the key to it.
