The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Friday announced that the Winter Session would be held from December 15 to January 5, 2018, ANI reported. The session is usually held from mid-November till the third week of December.

The session will begin a day after the second phase of voting for the Gujarat assembly elections. The Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases – on December 9 and December 14. The results will be declared on December 18.

On Thursday, the Congress had urged President Ram Nath Kovind to direct the government to hold the Winter Session of Parliament at the earliest. It had accused the Centre of delaying the session “without ascribing any justification for doing so”.

In a letter dated November 21, the Congress Parliamentary Party said delaying the Winter Session will set an “unhealthy precedent”, and that the government has only “informally mentioned” that it was being pushed to avoid clashing with the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

The Congress pointed out that in 2012, the Assembly elections were held in Gujarat on December 13 and 17, while the Parliament session that year was duly convened from November 22 to December 20.

On Tuesday, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar had said that the Parliamentary Affairs Panel will meet “in the next couple of days” to decide the dates for the Winter Session.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday had said that the government would ensure a “normal Winter Session” of Parliament, but it does not want the dates to overlap with the elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat next month.