Congress cutting short parliament sessions to avoid opposition: BJP

New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday accused the Congress of cutting short sessions of parliament and state assemblies to escape the opposition onslaught over issues such as corruption.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, alleged that after the budget session of parliament was cut short citing the assembly elections, it was now the turn of Congress government in Rajasthan to do the same in the state.

‘I have been informed by leader of the opposition in Rajasthan assembly Vasundhara Raje that only 26 sittings were held in 2009, of which nine were disrupted by the ruling party. There were only 27 sittings in 2010 of which seven were wasted,’ the BJP chief said in the letter.

Noting that on March 23, the Rajasthan assembly passed the budget and nine important legislations without any debate, Gadkari said the house was then adjourned sine die. ‘This was the shortest budget session in Rajasthan’s history,’ he said.

BJP legislators from Rajasthan had earlier this month called on President Pratibha Patil to register their complaint in this regard.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain alleged that the Congress was now adopting a new tactics to escape the opposition attack on its governments over corruption, be it the central UPA government or the Congress administrations in Delhi and Rajasthan.

‘Congress has started this new trend of cutting short parliament and assembly sessions,’ he said.

Hussain said the Delhi assembly session was cut short as the Sheila Dikshit government did not want to face opposition onslaught on the V.K. Shunglu committee report indicting it for losses in revenue during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Parliament’s budget session was adjourned sine die on March 25 and was later prorogued, following demands from political parties that wanted to focus on campaigning in the assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

BJP had initially opposed the proposal to end parliament session, as it wanted important bills to be sent to standing committees and debated before passing them.

Moreover, the party is a fringe player in the states that are going to the polls this time around, except in Assam.