As opposition leaders gathered in Mumbai for the third round of discussions to take forward their intent to have a joint fight against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, the surprise announcement by the government that a special session of Parliament will be held from September 18 to 22 was viewed with great interest and suspicion.
One of the immediate reactions of the opposition leaders was that the timing of the announcement was deliberate, meant to divert attention from the meeting of the leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. The two-day meeting began this evening with informal discussions and a dinner hosted for the leaders by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
It was also felt that the timing of the announcement had to do with the latest revelations by investigative reporting platform OCCRP which alleged that hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded group stocks of Adani Group through Mauritius-based 'opaque' investment funds managed by partners of promoter family of billionaire Gautam Adani, and was an attempt at managing the headlines.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, through a post on X, announced that the government would hold a special session from September 18 to 22. No specific agenda or purpose of holding the session was cited, leading to intense speculation on the government's plans with regard to calling the special session.
“Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to have fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” Joshi wrote.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said whatever may be the agenda of the government in the special session, that of the opposition would be raising the Adani issue and demanding that a joint parliamentary group be constituted to probe the allegations made against the business group.
NCP leader Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi criticised the government over the dates of the special session, pointing out that the session would coincide with Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, which are a major event in Maharashtra.
Since the government did not declare the agenda of the special session, there was speculation on what could be the special legislative business that the government planned to accomplish in the session. The various possibilities discussed ranged from the timing of the Lok Sabha elections and whether the session could be a precursor to the polls getting advanced to Modi's pet theme of 'one nation, one poll', which requires constitutional amendments, to uniform civil code to women's reservation bill.