Winter session
NEW DELHI: The all-party meeting ahead of the winter session of Parliament will be held at 11 am on Sunday, a day before the session opens. It will be followed by the Business Advisory Council meetings of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at 4 pm. A meeting of the Floor Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc will be held at 10 am on Monday in the office of Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. During the all-party meeting, the government is expected to seek cooperation from all political parties to ensure the smooth functioning of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The session will conclude on December 19, with several important legislations scheduled for discussion and passage during this period.SIR issue set to rock winter sessionParties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are expected to raise the issue of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise — and the deaths allegedly linked to it — in West Bengal and other parts of the country during the Parliament session, according to senior TMC leader Derek O’Brien. The opposition, including the TMC, which is seeking a fourth consecutive term in West Bengal when the state goes to polls in mid-2026, has been accusing the Election Commission of imposing “SIR-linked inhuman pressure” on ground staff through compressed timelines and “unworkable deadlines.” O’Brien claimed the “accelerated” voter-roll revision has caused fear, fatigue, and fatalities among Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and citizens. He added that the party will question why West Bengal has been subjected to the “most intensive scrutiny,” while several border states with similar demographics have been exempted. “Why have Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur, all bordering countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar, been entirely exempted? Why is Assam under a lighter Special Revision? Is the real intent to challenge Bengali identity and systematically prune Bengali voters from the rolls?” O’Brien asked. Official data shows the West Bengal SIR is nearing completion, with 7.64 crore forms circulated, 82 per cent digitised, and 99.8 per cent of voters covered in the door-to-door verification drive. Phase two of the “purification” of electoral rolls — the first phase was conducted in Bihar ahead of its recently held assembly polls — began on November 4 and covers nine states, including West Bengal, and three Union Territories. The final voter list is expected to be published on February 7, 2026.