Throughout Query Hour within the Lok Sabha Tuesday, senior Telugu Desam Social gathering MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy expressed disappointment over the eighth-row seat he has been allotted within the Home. Reddy, a member of a celebration that could be a BJP ally, felt his grievance was real: He’s a fifth-term MP, and within the final Lok Sabha, was seated within the second row.
Speaker Om Birla rapidly stepped in to inform Reddy to defer his complaints for later. “No member shall increase questions over the work preparations of Parliament on the ground of the Home. If in case you have any problem or considerations, please come to the chamber or the (Ministry of) Parliamentary Affairs. Let this conference be adopted like a rule,” Birla stated.
Nonetheless, whereas they won’t have expressed it publicly like Reddy, plenty of senior MPs are sad with the brand new seating association within the Lok Sabha. A number of Congress MPs stated there was “no logic” within the project of the entrance rows, whereas its allies within the INDIA bloc noticed the hand of the Congress management in protecting them away from probably the most sought-after “eighth block” – the primary to the left aspect of the Speaker’s chamber.
Chief of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s seat is within the eighth block (on the acute left, dealing with the Prime Minister and senior ministers on the Treasury Benches, seated within the first block), together with Congress basic secretary and Public Accounts Committee chairman Okay C Venugopal, DMK chief T R Baalu. Within the second row of this block, the one non-Congress MP is the DMK’s A Raja. Newly elected Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been allotted a fourth-row aisle seat in the identical block. Congress deputy chief within the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi and Congress chief whip Suresh Kodikunnil are within the entrance row of the following block.
On the centre of the unhappiness over seat allotments is the main target of the cameras for the dwell telecast of Home proceedings. Apart from the Treasury Benches, the cameras primarily deal with the eighth block, the place the Chief of the Opposition is seated. Many MPs say visibility within the dwell telecast is vital for his or her stature of their respective constituencies.
Within the earlier Lok Sabha’s association, DMK leaders Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran, and the NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule have been seated within the final block together with the senior Congress leaders. At the moment, all three have been pushed to the seventh block. Sule can be reportedly sad with the brand new seating association.
Earlier than the brand new seats have been allotted, Samajwadi Social gathering (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, and senior get together leaders Awadesh Prasad and Dimple Yadav additionally used to take seats within the first and second rows together with the senior Congress leaders within the eighth block. Within the new association, Akhilesh Yadav has been allotted a seat away from the Congress leaders, within the first row of the sixth block. Trinamool Congress chief Sudip Bandyopadhyay can be on the primary row of the sixth block.
Congress sources admitted the SP blames the get together too for the seat allocation. In line with an MP current within the Lok Sabha on Tuesday morning, as he entered the Home, Akhilesh commented: “Thanks, Congress.” The Congress’s Venugopal was seen going to Akhilesh’s seat and gesturing that he may take his seat close to Rahul Gandhi, however Akhilesh refused.
Sources within the Speaker’s workplace stated the Congress enter was essential within the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry’s seat allocation for the Opposition. “We allot blocks for the Opposition. The Chief of the Opposition and the get together give the solutions for the seat allotment,” the supply stated.
A senior INDIA bloc chief, who was earlier seated within the rows behind Rahul Gandhi within the earlier Lok Sabha, identified that within the earlier association, the Opposition leaders have been combined and shared blocks of seating. “Now the Congress has given just some seats to its ally leaders within the prime block and stored a lot of the seats to itself. This doesn’t go properly with the coalition concept. Whereas the Congress desires each small get together to cooperate alongside their traces, they don’t need to do any energy sharing,” stated a pacesetter from an allied get together.
However Congress leaders additionally didn’t appear to be pleased with the seating. Whereas senior Congress chief and former Cupboard minister Manish Tiwari is within the fourth row now, one other senior MP Shashi Tharoor was given a seat within the third row. “I don’t see any logic in the best way the seats have been assigned,” a senior Congress MP stated.
“Your seat contained in the Home says quite a bit concerning the respect, regard and the stature you might have earned along with your expertise. When these items usually are not counted, it hurts the ego too,” added an MP.
The TDP is believed to have approached the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Speaker in search of a revision of the seats allotted to the get together, and never simply Reddy’s. TDP Lok Sabha chief Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu is reportedly sad that he has been seated close to Mithun Reddy of the YSR Congress Social gathering (YSRCP), a celebration that Devarayalu left previous to the Lok Sabha elections. Even when Devarayalu’s seat is shifted, different TDP MPs usually are not happy both about being seated with MPs of the YSRCP.
Although the BJP too has seen seat reassignments – the seat assigned to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, one of many senior-most members of the ruling get together, was revised from 58 to 4 simply 24 hours after the seating checklist got here out – there appear to be extra rumblings within the Opposition.
