Govt. convenes all party meeting ahead of Monsoon Session

New Delhi, July 17 (ANI): The government has called an all party meeting on Sunday, to seek the support of opposition parties in the passage of pending legislations during the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has also convened an all party meeting today to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament. The session will have 20 working days and will conclude on August 12. A total of 25 bills including crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill are expected to come up for passing and consideration during the session. The government has reached out to the main opposition party for the passage of the GST Bill, while the Congress is also fine tuning its strategy on the legislation. Ahead of the session, top Congress leaders met party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Saturday and chalked out strategy on crucial issues, including the GST Bill. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad and other senior party leaders including Anand Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia attended the meeting. This came a day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar had a meeting with Azad and Anand Sharma. The two ministers discussed all points to bring Congress on board on GST Bill. The opposition party is also expected to corner the government in Parliament on the recent Arunachal Pradesh issue in wake of the Supreme Court judgment reinstating the Congress regime in the state. (ANI)