Laloo Prasad with Rabri Devi at an RJD meeting in Patna on Wednesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Dec. 22: The Centre is unlikely to approach the Election Commission to get the elections in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana rescheduled.

The government had earlier toyed with the idea as the dates ? February 3, 15 and 23 ? coincided with Parliament?s budget session commencing from mid-February.

But it appears that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has realised that the dates would not affect the budget session.

The BJP had requested the poll panel to consider a one-day election, fearing that a staggered schedule would help Laloo Prasad Yadav?s ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar to indulge in violence and rigging.

Union parliamentary affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said: ?The Assembly elections would not disrupt the budget session and nor are we approaching the Election Commission for changing dates of polling.?

There could be flexibility, Azad said, in the presentation of the railway budget by minister Laloo Prasad, though the election campaign would be over by then and only polling would remain.

On parties? need for increasing the sittings of the House, Azad said: ?We are not against more sittings but it should not be for the sake of sittings. The duration of each session should be need-based with no fixed (number of) days.?

An all-party meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee yesterday had suggested at least 100 sittings.

According to Azad, the last budget session lasted for three months but only 10 per cent business could be conducted whereas the 17-day winter session ending tomorrow notched up ?100 per cent business even though the Opposition was saying it was too short?.

?All laws which the government thought were important were passed and the Opposition and ruling (sides) felt that some issues which needed to be discussed were also discussed. So where was the need to have a longer session?? he asked.

Azad rebuffed the BJP charge that the government was short of business and that the issues the party raised sustained the session.

?It is a decision of all political parties and the business of the House is decided by the business advisory committee in which all political parties are members,? the minister said.