As the suspense over the Lok Sabha Speaker post builds, sources said on Tuesday (June 18) that the top office of the Lower House of the Parliament is likely to go to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the position of Deputy Speaker may be given to an NDA ally. The I.N.D.I.A bloc has demanded the post of Deputy Speaker, which has conventionally always gone to the Opposition. However, the 17th Lok Sabha did not have any MP positioned in this office.
NDA leaders meet in Delhi
A meeting of NDA leaders took place at the residence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh which was attended by Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Manohar Lal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kiren Rijiju, S Jaishankar, Virendra Kumar, and Annapurna Devi. Additionally, some leaders from the constituent parties of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), such as Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh of Janata Dal (United) and Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), were also present. Both Lalan Singh and Chirag Paswan are ministers in the central government.
The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha will begin on June 24. During this session, new members of the lower house will be sworn in, and the election of the Lok Sabha Speaker will take place on June 26. According to sources, the list of speakers on the President's address was discussed in the NDA meeting.
Meeting on Assembly Elections in Maharashtra
A separate meeting of the Maharashtra BJP core group was held this evening at the party headquarters to discuss the party's strategy for the state assembly elections to be held later this year. The meeting, chaired by BJP President JP Nadda, Amit Shah and other top leaders of the party.
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