Friends to foes, controversial bills, agitation at its door - Parliament braces for stormy Monsoon session

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) The government and the opposition are gearing up for another stormy session of Parliament from Monday with several crucial bills likely to be taken up, including the earlier-defeated Constitution Amendment Bill on delimitation though it is not yet listed in the legislative agenda. The new session, with changed political equations following fractures in the opposition ranks, will open in the shadow of several raging issues like the planned march to Parliament by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Monday and the row over the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Both issues have been used by the opposition to target the government, which, according to sources, is also likely to be in a "combative mode" and its "priority" would be the passage of bills during the Monsoon Session. The CJP, which has been holding a sit-in at Jantar Mantar, barely 2-3 km from the Parliament House, on Saturday escalated its protest for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the alleged NEET paper leak after police whisked away activist Sonam Wangchuk to hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike. The stage for confrontation on the delimitation-women reservation agenda was set this week after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an all-party meeting. With BJP-led NDA strategists actively working to shore up a two-thirds majority required to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill to implement women's reservation and delimitation of constituencies, the principal opposition Congress is planning to mount a counter-offensive. Although the Congress is confident that INDIA-bloc parties will continue to oppose the bill, several opposition parties, including NCP-SP and Shiv Sena (UBT), have already indicated they are open to the government move should adequate safeguards for states be incorporated in the draft law. Even the DMK, which strongly opposed the Constitution 131st amendment bill defeated in the special session in April, has said that it will react to the new draft after reviewing it. The party has parted ways with the Congress and has sought a separate seating arrangement. There are, however, other changes in the political dynamics, especially after the rout of INDIA bloc's regional anchors in the last round of assembly polls. The government is determined to make one more bid at piloting and passing the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill 2026, convinced that the opposition is in disarray. Its strength is bolstered by 20 TMC Lok Sabha MPs and 6 SSS-UBT MPs breaking away from their parent parties to support the NDA in Lok Sabha. The bill, which was defeated in the last session, seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies by the 2029 general elections by conducting a delimitation of Lok Sabha seats and raising the house's strength to accommodate more women. On Saturday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla approved the merger of six Shiv Sena-UBT MPs with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, a constituent of the ruling NDA. Official sources said that with the merger of the six MPs, the strength of the Shiv Sena has gone up to 13. The Speaker also allowed separate seating for the 20 rebel TMC lawmakers, who have joined a little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), away from the parent party, the sources said. No final decision has been taken on the demand of the rebel TMC MPs to be recognised as part of the NCPI, and the matter is still under consideration, they said. The Trinamool Congress has sought disqualification of the rebel MPS. After the Speaker's ruling, NDA numbers in Lok Sabha have surged, although they still fall short of the two-thirds majority, which is currently 360 MPs in a house of 540, with three seats vacant. The NDA is short of a few seats for a two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha, and some abstentions could help pass the Constitution Amendment Bill in the upper house. Passing a Constitution Amendment Bill requires a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting. Among the bills the government has listed for consideration and passing in the Monsoon session are some contentious ones, including the FCRA Amendment Bill and the Vikshit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill. Other bills to be taken up during the session include making obstruction and insult of the national song Vande Mataram a criminal offence and bills to replace ordinances to increase the strength of Supreme Court judges and grant capital tax exemption to FIIs for investing in government bonds. Congress chief Kharge has already said that the party would raise issues like institutional capture, breaking of political parties, scams and corruption, price rise, foreign policy failures and ethanol blending in petrol, while seeking to corner the government during the session. While the Congress has already held its strategy meet on Thursday and vowed to corner the government on the Ram Temple and NEET paper leak issue, a broader opposition meeting is likely to happen on Monday morning, despite the cracks that are appearing. The government, on the other hand, has convened a customary all-party meeting on Sunday, a day ahead of the session that is likely to continue till August 13. The government will counter the opposition attack on the NEET paper leak case with the actions taken to bring those involved to book and the measures taken to conduct a free and fair retest for admission to medical and dental courses, sources said. According to the sources, the government is likely to counter the opposition's push for a response on alleged embezzlement of donations at Ram Temple in Ayodhya by insisting it is a "state matter". The government's "priority" would be the passage of bills during the Monsoon Session, they said. PTI SKC RT