17th Lok Sabha’s first session from Monday

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha will commence from Monday during which the passage of the Union Budget and other key legislations such as triple talaq will be on top of the agenda for the government

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chairing an all-party meeting on the eve of the first session of the new Lok Sabha, invited heads of all parties to a meeting on June 19 to discuss the “one nation, one election” issue and other important matters

Noting that there are many new faces in this Lok Sabha, Modi said the first session of the Lower House of Parliament should begin with “fresh zeal and new thinking”

At the all-party meeting, the Congress raised with the government issues of unemployment, farmers distress, drought, and press freedom, while also calling for early conduct of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir

The opposition parties demanded discussion on all such issues in Parliament, with the Congress asserting that it is still a “fight of ideologies”

Prime Minister Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress lawmakers Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, K Suresh, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and TMC leader Derek O’Brien were present at the meeting

The BJP also held its parliamentary party meet here Sunday with Prime Minister Modi assuring Indians that his government will be at the forefront of facilitating legislation that manifests the spirit of “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas”

A day before the first session of the newly-constituted 17th Lok Sabha, a meeting of the NDA was also held here

The government had promulgated as many as 10 ordinances for the session which ends on July 26 and will have 30 sittings

The first two days of the session will be used for administering oath of office to all Lok Sabha MPs. The oath will be administered by protem speaker Virender Kumar. The speaker will be elected on June 19 and the next day the president will address a joint sitting of both Houses