The election of the speaker on June 26, as well as discussion over paper leak allegations in NEET-UG and UGC-NET and a row over the appointment of the pro-tem speaker will likely dominate the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha beginning Monday. Newly elected MPs will take oath on the first day of the session, while President Droupadi Murmu will address a joint sitting of both the Houses on June 27.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said he will personally raise the issue of paper leak in the two all-India examinations in Parliament and the opposition will put pressure on the Centre to ensure justice for students. The row over appointment of BJP leader and seven-term MP Bhartruhari Mahtab as the pro-tem speaker is likely to cast a shadow over the session, as the move has drawn flak from the opposition that alleged Congress MP K Suresh was overlooked by the government.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said Mahtab has had seven uninterrupted terms as Lok Sabha MP, making him eligible for the post, while Suresh lost elections in 1998 and 2004. He said this makes his current term as the fourth straight one in the lower house. Earlier, he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1999, he added.
Lok Sabha MPs from the INDIA bloc will also assemble in the Parliament complex in the morning and march to the House together on the first day, sources said. The MPs will gather near Gate No 2 of the old Parliament building, where the Gandhi statue once stood, a senior opposition party leader said.
What will happen on Day 1?
Murmu will administer the oath to Mahtab as the pro-tem speaker of the Lok Sabha at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The BJP leader will then reach Parliament House and call the Lok Sabha to order at 11 am. The proceedings will begin with MPs observing a moment of silence on the occasion of the first sitting of the 18th Lok Sabha, followed by Lok Sabha secretary general Utpal Kumar Singh placing on the table of the House the list of the members elected.
Mahtab will then call upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Leader of the Lok Sabha, to take oath as member of the House. He will then administer oath to the panel of chairpersons appointed by the President to assist him in carrying out the proceedings of the House till the election of the Speaker on June 26.
The President has appointed Suresh (Congress), TR Baalu (DMK), Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste (both BJP) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC) to assist Mahtab in administering the oath/affirmation to the newly elected members of the Lok Sabha.
After the panel of chairpersons, the pro-tem speaker will administer the oath/affirmation as Lok Sabha members to the Council of Ministers. The members from states, in alphabetical order, will take oath or make affirmation over the next two days.
What will happen on the rest of the days?
The election to the post of Lok Sabha Speaker will take place on June 26 and the prime minister will introduce his council of ministers to the House soon after.
The President is scheduled to address a joint sitting of both houses on June 27. The debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address will begin on June 28. Modi is expected to respond to the debate on July 2 or 3.
Both the Houses are expected to go into a brief recess and reassemble on July 22 for the presentation of the Union Budget.
What is the row over Mahtab’s appointment?
The NDA government and the INDIA bloc have continued to spar over the issue of Mahtab’s appointment. Rijiju has accused the Congress of resorting to lies while the opposition has threatened to refuse to join the panel of chairpersons in the House.
The Congress had alleged that the government violated procedures and conventions in ignoring Suresh. Opposition sources said Suresh, Baalu and Bandyopadhyay may not join the panel of chairpersons to assist Mahtab in administering the oath to the newly elected MPs.
Suresh said his claim to the post of pro-tem speaker was overlooked as he is a Dalit, remarks scoffed at by Rijiju. Spokesperson of the BJP, Shehzad Poonawala said the Congress had deliberately insulted a “tribal” parliamentary affairs minister by lying on the issue of pro-tem speaker.
“Congress has always insulted tribals. They called Droupadi Murmu ji ‘rashtrapatni’ and they even abused her,” Poonawala said.
Rijiju said he may be the first tribal to occupy the post of parliamentary affairs minister but he will not be intimidated by the threats and lies of the Congress. “I will be bound by rules and will strictly follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji’s mantra of sabka saath sabka vikas,” he said.
Earlier, Congress leader KC Venugopal had described Suresh being “overlooked” as an attempt at “destroying parliamentary norms”. “I have said this before and say this now, the battle for saving our democracy and constitution isn’t over yet,” Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said in a post on X.
D Raja, CPI general secretary, said even after a serious reprimand by the people by cutting the BJP to size, they have not understood the seminal importance of democracy, consultation, parliamentary norms and opposition for the country.
“However, the totalitarian BJP cannot see an opposition member even as speaker pro tem and, thus, appointed a turncoat BJP MP to the post,” Raja said.
What is the NDA strategy for the first Parliament session?
To plan the floor strategy for the Parliament session, defence minister Rajnath Singh had chaired a meeting of senior ministers. Murmu is scheduled to spell out the NDA government’s vision for the next five years during this session.
The meeting was attended by Union ministers S Jaishankar, Manohar Lal Khattar, Bhupender Yadav, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kiren Rijiju, Annapurna Devi, Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’ and Chirag Paswan.
Rajnath Singh is learnt to have sought inputs from the senior ministers, including NDA partners Lalan Singh of the JD(U) and Paswan of the LJP(RV), for the president’s address. They deliberated upon the possible candidates for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The JD(U) has said it will support the BJP nominee for the Speaker’s post, while another key ally TDP has sought a consensus candidate for the coveted post. The opposition INDIA bloc has sought the Deputy Speaker’s post for its nominee, while the BJP is mulling giving the post to one of its alliance partners.
What are the INDIA bloc’s plans?
The united march by the INDIA MPs from a spot where the Gandhi statue once stood will be a significant part on the first day of the session. This statue, which was a popular protest site for MPs in the Parliament complex, was recently relocated along with 14 other statues. All these were installed in one area, Prerna Sthal.
A senior opposition leader said some MPs will hold copies of the Constitution and walk down to the Parliament building. Several opposition parties have claimed that the mandate of 2024 Lok Sabha elections was against the ruling BJP, even though it was able to form a government with support of NDA allies. The bloc has also claimed that people backed the opposition parties to “save the Constitution”.
The Congress, which has held protests across the country over alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET, will also focus on raising the issue in Parliament. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that under the BJP’s rule, the “education mafia” has a free hand to indulge in corruption.
“Seventy papers have been leaked in seven years and the future of two crore youth has been ruined. The NEET exam paper leak scam is a symbol of the Modi government’s utter indifference towards the youth,” he said.
Kharge said his party will raise the voice of the youth strongly. Slamming the Centre over the alleged irregularities in NEET, Gandhi shared a video of his meeting with a group of aspirants and their parents amid the ongoing exams row. His sister and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also launched a scathing attack on the government over exam paper leaks, saying the issue has become a national problem.
(With PTI inputs)