Ahead of Parliament Monsoon Session, LS Speaker Calls All-Party Meeting

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will also interact with the floor leaders during the all-party meeting.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has called an all-party meeting of floor leaders on 18 July, a day ahead of the Parliament's Monsoon Session, reported news agency ANI.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will also interact with the floor leaders during the meeting and take their views before the session starts its 19-day business from 19 July, IANS reported, quoting sources.

The meeting is expected to take place at 11 am, reported Hindustan Times.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament will begin on 19 July and is likely to conclude on Friday, 13 August. Approximately 17 bills are expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha during the session.

The BJP's Parliamentary Party is also scheduled to hold an executive meeting on the same day, according to ANI, along with a meeting of the floor leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Meanwhile, top BJP leaders and Union Ministers, including party President JP Nadda, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, held a meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss matters related to the Monsoon Session and frame the party's strategy to counter the opposition. The meeting was held at Union Minister Rajnath Singh's residence.

Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupender Yadav and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ministers of State Arjun Ram Meghwal and V. Muraleedharan, among others, were present in the meeting. Besides them, Joshi also attended the meet, reported IANS.

Since the pandemic began, three sessions of Parliament – Budget, Monsoon and Winter Session – were curtailed and the Winter Session last year had to be cancelled. Last year, the Monsoon session, which usually starts in July, had begun in September.

This year's Monsoon Session comes after a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, with daily cases having peaked at more than four lakh and deaths at more than 4,000. The wave was marked by a crippling shortage of hospital beds, medical oxygen, and essential medicines.

(With inputs from ANI, IANS and Hindustan Times)