The Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is yet to pick a Lok Sabha speaker, which might happen in a special eight-day Parliament session from June 24.
A special 8-day session of Parliament is expected to commence on June 24, an indiatoday.in report cited sources, who added that the the election of the Lok Sabha speaker is likely to be held on June 26.
On June 24 and 25, new Members of Parliament will be taking their oath, according to the above mentioned sources.
TDP, JDU Eyeing Lok Sabha Speaker Post?
N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, which emerged as kingmakers after the BJP failed to secure majority in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, are reportedly eyeing the Lok Sabha speaker post.
The post of speaker of Lok Sabha is crucial, more so in recent times, given the backdrop of rebellions by politicians that have led to split in parties and toppled government over the past couple of years. In times of rebellions, the anti-defection law comes into play, and the Speaker of the House plays a crucial role. Naidu and Kumar, both Coalition-era veterans, want the Speaker's post as a shield against any such tactic, an NDTV report mentioned.
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Opposition Hopes Deputy Speaker Gets Elected
With the INDIA bloc parties' numbers increasing in the 18th Lok Sabha, the lower house is set to get a leader of the opposition (LoP) after ten years, and opposition leaders are also hopinh that a deputy speaker will be elected soon, a post that had been vacant for the last five years.
The 17th Lok Sabha, which was dissolved on June 5, did not have a deputy speaker for its full term, and it was the second consecutive term of the lower house without an LoP.
In the 17th Lok Sabha, the BJP was in an absolute majority with 303 seats. It elected Om Birla as the Speaker and in a first, no deputy speaker was elected through its term of five years.
As per Article 93 of the Constitution, the Lok Sabha shall, as soon as may be, choose two members to be speaker and deputy speaker so often as the offices become vacant. However, it does not provide a specific time frame.
In the 16th Lok Sabha, M Thambidurai of the AIADMK was elected as Deputy Speaker, 70 days after the election results.
Before this, the longest that the lower house had no deputy speaker was in the 12th Lok Sabha, when the House functioned for 269 days without one since election, data compiled by the PRS and cited in a PTI report shows. The tenure of the 12th Lok Sabha, led by BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee lasted only for 13 months, from 10 March 1998 to 26 April 1999.
Lok Sabha To Have LoP First Time In 10 Years
The 18th Lok Sabha will also have an LoP for the first time in ten years. In the previous two Lok Sabhas, the largest opposition party Congress could not get the post as it did not have the requisite numbers, which is one-tenth of the strength of the House.
In the 16th Lok Sabha, the Congress had 44 MPs, while in the 17th Lok Sabha it had 55.
The post of LoP was not recognised till 1969 when Ram Subhag Singh became the first recognised LoP of the Lok Sabha, the PTI report said.
This time, the leader of Congress, which is the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha with 99 MPs, will be recognised as the LoP.
The members of the Congress Working Committee on Saturday unanimously urged Rahul Gandhi to assume the position of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. They also acknowledged his two Bharat Jodo Yatras for the party's performance in the general elections.
Following a meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC), party general secretary KC Venugopal stated that CWC members unanimously requested Gandhi to accept the Leader of Opposition role.
"Rahul Gandhi said he would take a decision on it very soon," Venugopal said.
