Parliament Session: Lok Sabha Speaker poll to be held tomorrow; Congress, BJP issue whip

New Delhi [India], June 25 (ANI): The second day of the first Lok Sabha session post-general elections began with the remaining 281 members taking oath as Members of Parliament (MPs) today.
A total of 262 newly elected MPs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took oath on Monday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while taking oath as the MP, displayed a copy of the Constitution.
Yesterday too, when Prime Minister Modi approached the stage to take his oath, Rahul Gandhi was seen displaying a copy of the Constitution.
"I, Rahul Gandhi... Having been elected a member of the House of People, do solemnly affirm that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India, and that I will faithfully discharge the duty upon which I am about to enter. Jia Hind Jai Samvidan," the social media platform X of the Congress Party posted alongside a video of Rahul Gandhi's oath-taking.
Congress Parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party's general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also arrived at the Parliament for Rahul's oath-taking ceremony.
Besides Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav, SP leader Dimple Yadav, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-SP MP Supriya Sule and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi are some of the key leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc who took oath on the second day of the 18th Lok Sabha.
AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday concluded taking his oath as a member of the Lok Sabha with the words "Jai Palestine".
Owaisi defeated BJP's Madhavi Latha Kompella with a margin of 3,38,087 votes in the recent parliamentary election for a fifth consecutive victory from Hyderabad in Telangana.
While being sworn in as an MP in the 18th Session of the Lok Sabha, Owaisi ended his oath with the words, "Jai Bhim, Jai Meem, Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine.
"Taking to his official X handle, Owaisi posted, "Sworn in as a member of Lok Sabha for the fifth time. Inshallah, I will continue to raise issues of India's marginalised with sincerity."
Speaking with ANI, Owaisi said, "Everyone is saying a lot of things... I just said "Jai Bhim, Jai Meem, Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine"...How it is against, show the provision in the Constitution?"
Several Palestinians have been facing the brunt of the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach a consensus on the appointment of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP om Birla came to naught as the opposition INDIA bloc nominated Congress MP K Suresh for the post.
The election for the post of the Lok Sabha speaker is to be held tomorrow.
Earlier, the INDIA bloc demanded the position of the Deputy Speaker. However, with no clarity forthcoming from the BJP, the INDIA bloc has put forward Congress MP K Suresh's name for the Speaker's post.
On the other hand, BJP has nominated its Kota MP Om Birla for the Speaker's post, who previously served as the Speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha.
Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that they had informed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh that the Opposition is prepared to support NDA's Speaker candidate, on the condition that the Deputy Speaker position is given to the opposition.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi said, "We have said to Rajnath Singh that we will support their Speaker (candidate) but the convention is that the post of Deputy Speaker is given to the Opposition."
Further elaborating on discussions between Rajnath Singh and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul also criticised the treatment of opposition leaders, alleging disrespect.
"Today it is written in the newspaper that PM Modi has said that the Opposition should cooperate with the government constructively. Rajnath Singh called Mallikarjun Kharge and he asked him to extend support to the Speaker. The entire Opposition said that we would support the speaker, but the convention is that the Deputy Speaker post should be given to the opposition. Rajnath Singh said that he would call back Mallikarjun Kharge but he has not done that yet...PM Modi is asking for cooperation from Opposition but our leader is getting insulted," he said.
The NDA, which commands 293 MPs in the 543-member Lok Sabha, holds a clear majority, while the opposition INDIA bloc comprises 234 MPs.
The BJP and the Congress party, meanwhile, have issued a three-line-whip to all of their MPs to remain in the House tomorrow from 11 a.m. onwards.
Earlier today, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal advocated INDIA bloc's demand to hold the position of the Deputy Speaker.
"When the UPA was in power, we gave the Deputy Speaker to the NDA for 10 years. The convention is so in the Lok Sabha that the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha is given to the Opposition," Venugopal told ANI.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar also emphasised that according to tradition, the Speaker should be from the ruling party while the Deputy Speaker should come from the Opposition.
"The usual practice is that the ruling party holds the post of Speaker, and the Opposition holds the post of Deputy Speaker. During the past 10 years of the Modi government, the opposition was not given the post of Deputy Speaker," Sharad Pawar said while speaking to the media in Mumbai.
Pawar further mentioned that he had spoken with leaders of the INDIA bloc and suggested they communicate to the ruling party that consensus could be reached on the Speaker's appointment under the condition that the Opposition gets the post of Deputy Speaker.
"I had discussions with the leaders of the INDIA bloc. I suggested that they convey to the ruling party that consensus could be achieved regarding the Speaker's appointment, provided the post of Deputy Speaker is allocated to the Opposition," Pawar said.
This will be the first time that elections are held for the Speaker of the lower house, as traditionally, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Speaker have been elected through consensus between the ruling party and the Opposition.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, meanwhile, criticised the Congress party for wanting the post of Deputy Speaker in return for extending support to the post of Lok Sabha Speaker and said that putting up conditions is wrong.
Speaking with the reporters, Rijiju said, "For the last two days, we have contacted the major opposition parties and we have talked about the post of Speaker. Since the country became independent, there has never been an election of the Speaker, and we want the Speaker to be elected unanimously and unopposed, so we contacted and appealed to them."
Informing about the meeting with the Congress, Rijiju said, "Today, we had a meeting with Congress leaders. We appealed to them for support for the Speaker but they said that they would support it but that they wanted the post of Deputy Speaker. We told them that the process of election for both posts is different. The process for choosing the Speaker is conducted before the Deputy Speaker. So it is not right to combine both."
He criticised Congress for putting up conditions for extending their support to the post of Speaker and said, "The tradition has been that the Speaker is elected unanimously and that has been a practice. Let us not break convention and tradition and putting conditions on the Speaker post itself is wrong. I once again appeal to the Congress party to follow tradition and convention and let us elect the new speaker of Lok Sabha unanimously."
"The attitude of the Congress party was clear, they wanted the Dy Speaker post in return for supporting us for the post of Speaker. I appeal again that they should think about keeping in mind the dignity of the post of Speaker," Rijiju said.
This is the first Lok Sabha session post-general elections in which the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) bagged 293 seats while the INDIA bloc secured 234 seats.
The BJP, however, failed to reach a majority mandate bagging merely 240 seats. (ANI)