Budget 2025: All-party meeting begins in the Parliament ahead of crucial budget session

Budget 2025: Ahead of the Union Budget session scheduled to begin on January 31, an all-party meeting has commenced at the Parliament Annexe building in New Delhi.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, JP Nadda, Arjun Ram Meghwal, and L Murugan will chair the meeting, reported ANI on Thursday.

Leaders from various political parties, including Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh, and Gaurav Gogoi and TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O'Brien are attending.

RSP MP NK Premachandran, BJD MP Sasmit Patra, DMK MP TR Baalu, SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav, JMM MP Mahua Maji and several other MPs are also attending the meeting.

Premachandran said that this is a routine meeting conducted before the parliamentary session, adding that the opposition is for the smooth functioning of Parliament.

"The budget session starts tomorrow, so it is the usual practice of having an all-party meeting...The opposition is ready to have a smooth functioning of the Parliament if the government cooperates. But the government has to take the initiative for this...We are planning to raise so many issues including the economic slowdown, price rise, unemployment..." Premachandran told ANI.

Parliament's budget session will commence on January 31 and is scheduled to end on April 4. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget on February 1.

On January 31, President Droupadi Murmu will address the joint session of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. There will be an inter-session break from February 14, and the two Houses will resume sittings on March 10.

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju informed on Monday that the government has called an all-party meeting on January 30.

“On 31st January, the Budget session of Parliament will start. Before it, on 30th January, we have called an all-party meeting,” Rijuju told ANI.