Joshi seeks cooperation of opposition parties in smooth conduct of parliament session

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday sought cooperation of opposition parties in the smooth conduct of winter session of parliament that would begin on November 18.

"We have four pending bills and seven to eight more bills are likely to come. I request the opposition parties to cooperate just like they did in the last session of the parliament," Joshi told ANI.

On former Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka KC Ramamurthy joining the BJP, Joshi said that many people have joined the BJP under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"I welcome Ramamurthy's decision to join the BJP. Ramamurthy has said that he was forced to oppose the government's move to abrogate Article 370 by his party and he does not want to remain in such a party," Joshi said.

The government is expected to take forward its legislative agenda during the session that includes replacing two ordinances on -- corporate tax rate cuts and e-cigarettes and e-hookahs -- with bills.

The session will continue till December 13 and will be the second session since Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to the office with a bigger majority for a second successive term.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has communicated the dates of the session to the secretariats of both houses of Parliament.

The government is expected to bring a bill to replace the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 on the corporate tax rate cuts. The government had also brought an ordinance to ban e-cigarettes and e-hookahs in the country.

The previous session of parliament had created a record in the number of legislations passed. It had passed a bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir and adopted a resolution repealing Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.