Parliament reconvened on May 10

      New Delhi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi today announced that Parliament would be reconvened for two weeks, from May 10 to 23, and the reconvened session would be considered as the second phase of the Budget Session and not as a special session. Originally, the Parliament was to meet on May 10, after a month- long recess, but the Congress-led UPA Government had adjourned it sine die on March 22. The adjournment, it was alleged was done to bring about an ordinance which would amend the provisions defining the "office of profit", in a bid to save Congress President Sonia Gandhi from embarrassment of being disqualified from Lok Sabha. During the session, the Government is likely to introduce a new legislation regarding the issue of "office of profit". In the wake of the controversy, Sonia had resigned from the Lok Sabha as allegations were made that the session was adjourned just to issue the ordinance which would save her from disqualification from being a Member of Parliament for holding an office of profit while being the chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC). Defence Minister and Leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee has been assigned the task of holding parleys with other political parties over the issue and evolve a consensus, said Dasmunsi while addressing reporters after a CCPA (Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs) meeting in New Delhi. The Government's decision to adjourn the Parliament session sine die attracted a lot of criticism from both the Opposition and the media, which said that the parliament session was arbitrarily cut short because the Congress wanted to save its president Sonia Gandhi The Telugu Desam Party had submitted a petition to the Election Commission alleging that the Congress President was holding an "office of profit" thereby violating Article 102 and 103 of the Constitution.

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