- Speaker, Dy Speaker’s election after oath
- BJP LP leader to be recognized LoP
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 14: After swearing-in ceremony of Omar Abdullah as CM and his Council of Ministers on October 16, a Pro-tem Speaker will be appointed and administered oath by the Lieutenant Governor to run the Legislative Assembly till election to the post of Speaker is held.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
Abdul Rahim Rather, 80, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly for seventh record term and is oldest MLA, can be appointed as the Pro-tem Speaker. Ali Mohammad Sagar (NC) and MY Tarigami (CPM) are among the veteran MLAs having been elected to the House for seventh and fifth term respectively.
The Lieutenant Governor has to administer the oath to the Pro-tem Speaker.
The Pro-tem Speaker, in turn, will administer oath to all 90 MLAs in the House which will be followed by election of the Speaker.
With National Conference having crossed the majority mark on its own with the support of Independent MLAs and strength of NC-Congress alliance nearing 55, election of the Speaker is a mere formality. The Speaker is likely to be elected unanimously unless the BJP with 29 seats in the House of 90 forces a contest if it is denied post of the Deputy Speaker.
The BJP leadership has already stated that it will seek post of the Deputy Speaker as an Opposition party.
The PDP-BJP coalition Government headed first by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and then by Mehbooba Mufti from 2015-2018 had given post of the Deputy Speaker to the National Conference, the third- largest party in the Legislative Assembly then with just 15 seats. NC MLA from Gurez Nazir Gurezi served as the Deputy Speaker while BJP’s Kavinder Gupta was elected as the Speaker followed by Dr Nirmal Singh. However, no Assembly session was held during the term of Dr Nirmal Singh as the BJP withdrew support to the PDP in June 2018.
This time, however, the BJP is second largest party with 29 seats after National Conference which won 42 seats and has already stated that it should be given post of the Deputy Speaker. It will, however, be seen whether the NC-Congress alliance offers post of the Deputy Speaker to the BJP or not.
This will be for the first time that the BJP Legislature Party leader whose election is expected to be held this week will be the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly. The LOP generally has the rank and privileges of a Cabinet Minister. The BJP with 29 MLAs has already attained status of the recognized Opposition.
Sources said during election of the Speaker, a brief session of the Legislative Assembly is also expected to be held though Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha while inviting National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah to form the Government hasn’t asked him to prove majority on floor of the House as NC-Congress alliance commands majority with support of 55 MLAs.
“As this will be first session of the Legislative Assembly after conversion of Jammu and Kashmir from State to the Union Territory, a detailed set of Rules and guidelines are being worked out to run the House. This will be altogether a different Assembly from the previous one with limited powers of the Chief Minister and the Ministers,” the sources said, adding the details will be available once the guidelines are released.
If the newly formed Government calls the Assembly session this month it will be held in Srinagar. However, if the session is convened in the month of November it was likely to be held in Jammu.
Last Assembly session of Jammu and Kashmir was held in January-February 2018.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
