The second phase of the budget session of Parliament beginning on Wednesday is expected to be a stormy affair with opposition Bharatiya Janata Party raring to put the United Progressive Alliance in the dock on a number of issues, including the Volcker controversy, and its key outside supporters -- Left parties -- giving hints of being aggressive on foreign policy.
Being held in the backdrop of the assembly elections in five states, the two-week session is expected to witness the impact of the poll outcome. The controversy over the Other Backward Classes quota in elite educational institutions is also likely to figure prominently with differences between Union Ministers Arjun Singh and Kapil Sibal, and agitation by section of students making it a major issue.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has even favoured a 5 per cent reservation for the economically poor in upper caste while Congress and the BJP have been trying to chart out a middle path out of what has come to be known as Mandal-II.
The BJP has put the government on notice on several issues, including the Volcker controversy and the statements of former Union minister Natwar Singh as also on the killings of Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Left parties have warned they would be on offensive after the polls and have been agitating on several issues, including airport privatisation and FDI in retail.
Congress and its allies in the ruling coalition are expected to raise the Vadodara riots to put BJP in an embarrassing position as the violence there had brought the Narendra Modi government under renewed attack.
Both Houses of Parliament are expected to pay homage on the opening day to senior BJP leader and former parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan and other current and former members who died during the inter-session period.
This could be the first session for Sonia Gandhi who is expected to win from Rae Bareli, the seat that she resigned in the wake of Opposition targetting her on the Office of Profit row. Sonia is likely to be in time when Parliament is expected to deliberate on legislation on the Office of Profit issue. Though government has announced that legislation on the controversial issue would be on its priority agenda, it is not clear what shape the proposed legislation would take.
Political parties had been asked to give their views and suggestions on the proposed legislation in writing to the Leader of the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee but so far the picture is not clear as to how many of them have done so.
The BJP is also expected to focus on the attacks on Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir by drawing the government's attention to the recent Doda killings. The saffron party is also planning to embarrass the Congress-led coalition on the separate Telangana issue with the party seeking to drive a wedge by attempting to wean away Telangana Rashtra Samiti from UPA.
"We will support the government if it comes with a Bill on it. Otherwise, it is for TRS to decide whether they want to be part of the UPA," the BJP leaders, who held a marathon session on Monday under the chairmanship of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said. The meeting identified about 40 issues and decided to reserve certain days to raise major issues.
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