Doubts over T Bill in winter session

How can it be, asks Kamal Nath; Let’s see, says Ahmed Patel

New Delhi: Nervous over the delay in finalising the Telangana Bill, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday held confabulations with her senior colleagues at the Congress Core Group meeting on the time management for the passage of the Bill in Parliament in the upcoming Winter Session.

With the Congress-led UPA government moving in the fast-forward mode on the Telangana issue, the Congress is concerned over the passage of the Bill and is keen that it should be passed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and sent in time to Parliament, before December 20 when the Winter Session concludes.

The options before the Congress are to either extend the Winter Session beyond Christmas or to convene a Special Session of Parliament.

At the Congress Core Group meeting on Friday, Sonia Gandhi was briefed about the GoM report and the Telangana Bill. The meeting was attended by Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, besides Sonia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath was specially called to discuss the agenda in the Winter Session of Parliament that gets underway on December 5.

The nervousness inside the Core Group came out in the open when Kamal Nath, talking to the media persons, after the meeting, expressed doubts over the possibility of the passage of the Telangana Bill in the Winter Session itself. “How can it come,” he asked.

When probed further, whether it will come in the Budget Session now, he replied, “Let us see.” Ahmed Patel, on the contrary, expressed hope that the Bill will come, though he, too, played safe, by not specifying in which session.

Kamal Nath apprised the leadership that he convened an all-party meeting on December 2 to discuss the agenda of the Winter Session.

For the Congress, passing of Telangana Bill will be the top priority, but before that they have to ensure that the Bill reaches on time from the Andhra Pradesh Assembly to be taken for consideration by the Centre. The more the delay, the more difficult it will be for the Centre to pass the Bill.