Parliament winter session likely from Dec 15 to Jan 5

The Winter Session of Parliament is likely to be held from December 15 to January 5, sources said.

The reports come close on the heels of the Congress accusing the Centre of delaying the session. The Congress and the BJP on Tuesday sparred over the delay in convening Parliament's winter session with the opposition party claiming that the government was doing so to avoid a debate on "scams", including the Rafale deal, during the Gujarat polls.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi this week accused the PM of "sabotage" and said that the government is worried about being held accountable by the opposition for the economic slowdown that saw the growth rate declining in the last quarter to a 3-year-low of 5.7%.

Further Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP of delaying the Parliament winter session, saying that the party in power at the Centre was afraid of opposition debate ahead of Gujarat elections. In response to the allegations, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that it's not uncommon for elections to push back parliament sessions; he said the Congress was no stranger to this practice when it was in power and promised that the winter session would be called "very shortly".

On Monday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the winter session, which generally starts from November's third week, will be convened in December. The winter session is traditionally convened in the third week of November and lasts until the third week of December.