This session will also see a situation where Shiv Sena, while being an alliance partner of the ruling NDA at the Centre, is in opposition in Maharashtra where BJP is ruling the state. Talks are on to resolve the alliance issue in Maharashtra.
Days before the session commences, Speaker Mahajan has also announced allocation of seats in the lower house. The exercise took some six months since the 16th Lok Sabha came into being.
Congress has not been able to secure the Leader of the Opposition post as it fell short of the required 55 by 11 seats but Leader of Congress in the House Mallikarjun Kharge has been alloted the seat normally given to LoP in the Lok Sabha next to that of the Deputy Speaker in the Opposition benches.
Mahajan made it clear that this does not mean that the Congress leader has been accorded the Leader of the Opposition status.
With no Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, government is also amending the DSPE Act to make way for the leader of the single largest opposition party in Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee to appoint the CBI chief.
Besides, government also plans to put a clause in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act—governing the functioning of CBI—and the Lokpal Act to ensure that there is no requirement of “quorum” in the respective selection panels for choosing the anti-corruption ombudsman or the CBI chief.
Even in the absence of any of the members on the date of the meeting, its proceedings would not become “invalid”. The two laws are at present silent on the issue.
