The Winter Session of Parliament will be held from December 1 to December 19, said Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Saturday.

Rijiju said that President Droupadi Murmu had approved a proposal submitted by the Union government to convene the session during the period, “subject to exigencies of parliamentary business”.

“Looking forward to a constructive & meaningful session that strengthens our democracy & serves the aspirations of the people,” the minister said on social media.

Following the announcement, several Opposition leaders criticised the Union government for what they said would be a “truncated” session.

In a social media post, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked what message was being conveyed by holding the Winter Session for “just 15 days”.

“Clearly the government has no business to transact, no Bills to get passed, and no debates to be allowed,” he alleged.

His party colleague Manish Tiwari asked if the government had no legislative agenda “or is it the continued emasculation of Parliament”.

“The first Parliament sat for 135 days on an average between 1952-57,” said Tiwari. “The 17th Lok Sabha sat for only 55 days on an average between 2019 -2024.”

He added: “That is why we are becoming a two-horse republic – Executive and Judiciary. This does not auger well for democracy.”

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien claimed that the Narendra Modi government was suffering from “Parliament-ophobia, a morbid fear of facing Parliament”.

“15-day Winter Session announced,” he said on social media. “Setting dubious records.”

SIR, alleged vote fraud likely to come up

Opposition parties are likely to bring up several issues during the session, including concerns about the Election Commission conducting a special intensive revision of the voter rolls in the country.

The revision for 12 states and Union Territories had been announced by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on October 27. The exercise also includes the voter rolls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry, which are due for Assembly elections in 2026.

The draft rolls will be published on December 9, and the final list on February 7, 2026.

The poll panel began the enumeration phase of the exercise on Tuesday.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the ongoing Assembly elections, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.

Earlier this week, Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam also approached the court against the revision of the electoral rolls in the state, describing it as a “constitutional overreach”. On Wednesday, the Kerala government said that it would move the court.

The Election Commission has repeatedly defended the revision as a clean-up effort to remove names of the deceased, duplicate entries and undocumented migrants.

The Opposition is also likely to try and bring up the alleged vote fraud issue.

On Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged at a press conference that there was large-scale rigging in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, claiming that about 25 lakh fake voters were added to the electoral rolls ahead of the polls held in October 2024.

Later in the day, the Haryana chief electoral officer asked Gandhi to submit under oath the allegations he made about the state’s voter rolls having been manipulated.

The Congress leader had previously alleged irregularities in voter lists in the Aland and Mahadevapura Assembly constituencies in Karnataka, which the Election Commission dismissed as “incorrect” and “misleading”.

He and the Congress have also repeatedly alleged the Election Commission of large-scale rigging in other states, including the Maharashtra Assembly polls held in November, alleging what they called “industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of national institutions.” The Election Commission has rejected those allegations as well.

During the upcoming winter session, several bills, including the Constitution One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories Amendment Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Amendment Bill, 2025, are also likely to be taken up.

Fifteen bills were passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha during the last session of Parliament held in the monsoon from July 21 to August 21. The session had 21 sittings over 32 days.

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