new delhi the dismal show by the congress party in the state elections is likely to render the upa a lame duck government making it difficult to push through key bills and vital policy changes ahead of the 2014 national polls experts say the limited room for manoeuvre for the manmohan singh government comes at a time when urgent policy measures are needed to revive sentiment and steer the economy out of a deep slowdown i dont see any major change in the way parliament has functioned in the past two years said n r bhanumurthy professor at the national institute for public finance and policy adding that some bills could be approved where consensus has been thrashed out a fresh round of policy paralysis is also not ruled out against the backdrop of the looming national polls and a resurgent opposition policy scenario will remain as it has been for the last few years for most of the legislative business the government has to depend on the opposition parties i dont see any change said devendra pant chief economist at indiaratings the government has indicated that it wants to push the communal violence bill which is likely to face stiff opposition upa managers are also planning to get the contentious womens reservation bill which is vehemently opposed by government supporters such as the sp and the rjd while the government would like to get key business legislations such as insurance bill and the direct tax code bill passed the focus may shift to more populist bills such as lokpal and womens reservation the upa can still hope for the passage of at least the judicial appointments commission bill jac which proposes to replace the collegium system of appointing judges with a commission in the winter session among a host of bills related to judicial and electoral reforms other pending bills in the lok sabha include the judicial accountability bill and the 114th amendment bill to raise the retirement age of high court judges in view of the phenomenal political debut of the aam aadmi party the upas hope of getting through the proposed bill barring chargesheeted lawmakers from contesting elections is likely to attract support from all parties if the government finally decides to introduce it other pending electoral reforms such as banning opinion polls after notification of elections may have to wait it seems