Rajnath Singh to chair NDA meet today ahead of Monsoon Session

New Delhi: Ahead of the Monsoon Session, a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Parliament, comprising Union ministers from the BJP and its NDA allies, is likely to be held on Friday at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's residence, sources said.

The session begins on July 20 amid heightened buzz that the government may again bring a constitution amendment bill to increase Lok Sabha and assembly seats to provide women quota.

The opposition is likely to attack the government on a variety of issues, including NEET paper leak, death of Indian sailors in West Asia conflict and mixing of ethanol in petrol.


The leaders expected to attend the meeting include Union Ministers - Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Kiren Rijiju, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Chirag Paswan, Rammohan Naidu besides others.

A joint committee of Parliament is likely to adopt a report on a Constitution amendment bill which seeks to remove the prime minister, Union ministers and chief ministers from office for being in detention for 30 consecutive days on serious charges. The government could bring official amendments based on the recommendations of the panel.

It will be a test of numbers for the ruling NDA since a Constitution amendment requires the support of two-thirds of the members present and voting.

A similar Constitution bill to grant 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies fell in the Lower House in the previous session of Parliament as the government could not muster the required numbers.

In the upcoming session, the government may also bring an amended women's reservation bill along with a delimitation bill to seek its passage in Parliament. The government is learnt to be working on multiple formulations to increase the number of LS seats for all states by 50% to assuage the concerns of southern states, as it seeks to operationalise a fresh draft of the Constitution amendment bill on women's quota law.

The draft is being readied keeping in mind the concerns of the southern states that a population-based delimitation exercise would shrink their political power in the Lok Sabha.

Govt will not get 2/3rd majority in Lok sabha: Ramesh

The Congress is in touch with all opposition parties, including the DMK and AAP, who had voted together to defeat the Constitution amendment bill related to delimitation, AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday.