Lok Sabha begins last session

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) Lok Sabha, the lower house of
Parliament in India, begins a brief but last session in its
current term Thursday for essentially transacting the
vote-on-account business but the Government is expected to
come under attack on a range of issues like terror, "misuse"
of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Being the last session ahead of the Lok Sabha
elections, all parties are likely to extract the maximum
mileage ahead of the general elections by raising issues like
the row in the Election Commission, the plight of Sri Lankan
Tamils and the Satyam fraud.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has
already made it known that it would vociferously raise Chief
Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami's recommendation for the
sacking of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla on charges of
being partisan.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi himself
admitted that the session would be a "vibrant" one but
dismissed suggestions that the government could face problems
in the wake of key outside ally Samajwadi Party turning
belligerent.

The SP is targeting Congress, accusing it of using the
CBI as a tool against allies and has cited the instances of
CPI-M's Pinarai Vijayan of Kerala, Samajwadi Party's Mulayam
Singh in Uttar Pradesh and Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati.

The session, which will begin with the address of the
President to a joint sitting of both the Houses and spread
over ten sittings, is essentially for passing the interim
Railway and General Budgets. PTI SPG
DEP