With across-the-floor support for her candidature, veteran Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian Sumitra Mahajan is all set to be elected the Lok Sabha Speaker unopposed on Friday as no other candidate is in the fray.
From the BJP benches, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and two senior Cabinet colleagues, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh, filed motions proposing Ms. Mahajan’s name. Leaders of 16 non-BJP parties, including the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Trinamool Congress, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party, filed similar motions in her favour.
Meanwhile, inside the House, a bulk of the newly elected members took oath with the Chair doing away with the lunch recess and members agreeing to sit beyond 6 p.m. to wrap up the exercise. The members who were not present to take oath through the day will get a chance on Friday before the formal election of the Speaker.
The first person to take oath in the morning was Mr. Modi, who did so in Hindi. He was followed by BJP veteran L. K. Advani and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The panel of chairpersons, nominated by President Pranab Mukherjee to step in for the Pro tem Speaker, came next after which it was the turn of the Council of Ministers and then members State-wise in alphabetical order.
Since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh took effect after the general election, Pro tem Speaker Kamal Nath informed members from Telangana that they would be called to take oath when the new State’s turn came in the alphabetical order
