Sunday, November 20 2005 11:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Winter Session of Parliament beginning Wednesday (Nov 20,2005) is expected, by all accounts, to be stormy with the Congress-led coalition facing a determined Opposition in the wake of the Volcker report on Iraqi oil payoffs and the Left allies anger over its stand on the Iran nuclear issue.

Trouble is expected from the word go for the month-long session as Parliament meets just after Bihar polls and after the Supreme Court judgement on the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, the details of which are expected to be out a day before the session. The Court has already held the dissolution of the Assembly this Summer as "unconstitutional."

The BJP-led Opposition is in a mood to rock Parliament on the Volcker Committee report on the oil-for-food scam in which former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and the Congress have been named as beneficiaries. It has already given notice of this intention.

Strident demands have been made by the Opposition for the resignation of Natwar Singh, who is now a Cabinet Minister without portfolio, and Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee.

While Natwar Singh has made known his intention to make a statement in Parliament, Opposition appears to be in no mood to hear him and wants to see him out of government. Besides, the saffron-combine is insisting that Gandhi herself was "in the dock."

The session is also likely to see Opposition attacks on Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Bihar Governor Buta Singh on the dissolution issue as also the Naxalite attack on the Jehanabad jail.

The Centre is likely to face flak over the stepped-up terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir.