New Delhi:

Today’s election for the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker, already tilted in the government’s favour, can push the Opposition further down, with five of its 232 MPs yet to take oath. The oath pending, they cannot vote in the election, sources have told NDTV.

The list includes stalwarts like Congress’s Shashi Tharoor and Trinamool Congress’s actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha.

There are also a few others — Deepak Adhikari and Nurul Islam of Trinamool Congress and Afzhal Ansari of the Samajwadi Party and two Independents. It is not yet known why the oath of some of these leaders is pending.

Afzhal Ansari is the elder brother of criminal-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. Sentenced to four years in prison, his jail term was put on hold by the Allahabad High Court in view of the election.

The case will be heard when the court opens in July. If the court upholds his sentence, he will lose his membership of parliament.

Victory in Speaker election is based on the number of MPs present and voting – which means the absence of these seven MPs will bring down the total number and therefore the halfway mark.

While the Opposition won 232 seats, it will miss five MPs in its ranks, bringing it down to 227 – assuming the rest turn up and vote. The majority mark will stand at 269.

The NDA, already with 293 MPs, is also expected to have the support of the four MPs of YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress, which, like Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal, had lent issue-based support to the government.

Now, routed in the Odisha assembly election, the BJD has said it will not provide any support to the BJP. But the YSR Congress, though trounced by BJP ally Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, is sticking to its stance.

For the BJP, which already has enough MPs in its corner to ensure a victory of Om Birla — who is contesting against Opposition candidate K Suresh for a second stint at the job — the question is one of optics.

The BJP is also working to bring Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Akali Dal, Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad, and Shillong MP Ricky Andrew Syngkon on board. With their support, the party aims to surpass the psychologically significant threshold of 300 seats.

The party, unlike in 2014 and 2019, has been unable to achieve majority on its own and is dependent on Mr Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United to keep its head above the halfway mark. A decisive victory in the Lok Sabha is expected to boost morale in the party camp.

Starting off the first Parliament session in his third term on the front foot, the Prime Minister launched an ‘Emergency’ attack towards the main Opposition Congress before the Lok Sabha met this morning.

Addressing the media before the House met, the Prime Minister said this June 25 — tomorrow — will mark the 50th anniversary of the Emergency and called it a “black spot” on the country’s democracy.

This Parliament sessions comes after the general elections and the Opposition is buoyed by its good show that restricted the BJP below the majority mark. The Prime Minister has returned to the top post with the support of NDA allies and the Opposition plans to use its numerical strength to corner the government on the House floor.

The tone of the Prime Minister’s address, however, the BJP may have suffered a setback, but it has no plan to let the Opposition have its way.

The Prime Minister assured the people that the government will work three times harder in its third term and deliver three-fold results.

This election, he said, was significant because this is only the second government after Independence that has been chosen to continue for a third term in a row. “This opportunity has come after 60 years. When people have chosen a government for the third term, it means a stamp on its intent, a stamp on its policies and its dedication. I thank the people for this,” he told the media.

Referring to the Emergency imposed by the then Indira Gandhi government, he said, “Tomorrow marks 50 years of the black spot on Indian democracy. The new generation will not forget how the Indian Constitution was scrapped, how the country was turned into a jail and democracy was captured. In this 50th anniversary, the country will take a pledge that never again will it happen.”

The Prime Minister said the government will consistently try to take everyone along to serve the country and its people, but added a stern message for the Opposition. “India needs a responsible Opposition, people want substance not slogans, they want debate, diligence not drama and disturbance in Parliament. I hope the Opposition will live up to the people’s expectations,” he said.

The country, he said, has a lot of expectations from MPs and urged them to take every possible step for public welfare. The Prime Minister congratulated the newly elected MPs and noted that this is the first time new MPs will take the oath in the new Parliament building.

The Prime Minister’s remarks and swipes targeting the Congress drew a sharp response. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the country was expecting that the Prime Ministr would speak about the protests surrounding NEET, the train accident in West Bengal or the continuing violence in Manipur.

“You are warning the Opposition. You are talking about the 50-year-old Emergency, but have forgotten the undeclared Emergency in the last 10 years,” Mr Kharge said, adding that the people have “given a mandate against Modiji”. The Congress chief said the INDIA Opposition bloc will raise the people’s voice inside and outside the Parliament.

The Opposition Bloc INDIA can have its 3rd assembly in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena (UBT) has introduced. The celebration will host the meet, the place the united Opposition is anticipated to draft its Habitual Minimal Programme.

There may be expectation that an 11-member coordination committee can be named, “At that meeting in Mumbai, we will decide on who the 11 will be, who the Convenor will be, etc. These are small things,” Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge had mentioned.

The meet comes days upcoming the Opposition’s Deny-Self assurance Movement in opposition to the Narendra Modi govt — and the plan to compel him to talk on Manipur — collapsed. The High Minister in short discussed Manipur most effective upcoming a walkout by means of the Opposition, carried out upcoming 90 mins of his pronunciation.

With that background, the Opposition turns out to have its paintings trim out, understanding a fail-safe roadmap for the then spherical of meeting elections and the overall election then occasion.

The query of Opposition cohesion, too, must be settled in view of a few feedback by means of leaders of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Birthday party, whose fragile vacay with the Congress seems to be ceaselessly underneath ultimatum.

The Shiv Sena UBT, which issued the ask over, posted a teaser video on X, previously Twitter, drawing on optic from the sooner conferences of the fresh bloc, which introduced its title in Bengaluru extreme future.

“Those who want to bring dictatorship in the country, We will be against them!” reads a coarse translation of the caption.

जे देशात हुकूमशाही आणू पाहतात,
त्यांच्या विरोधात आम्ही असणार!#INDIA#जितेगाइंडिया#JeetegaINDIApic.twitter.com/6bxM3mXdtz

— ShivSena – शिवसेना Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (@ShivSenaUBT_) August 28, 2023

Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, ministers MK Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren, Mamata Banerjee and RJD Lalu Prasad had been amongst those that took section within the two-day meet. Sharad Pawar, whose celebration underwent a break in June with the insurrection of nephew Ajit Pawar, additionally joined in.

Pronouncing the fresh title for the Opposition Bloc in Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi had mentioned: “The fight is between NDA and INDIA, Narendra Modi and INDIA, his ideology and INDIA… The fight is about two different ideas of India… The fight is for the voice of the country.”

Calling the bloc “old wine in new bottle”, the BJP had pitched “Bharat” in opposition to “INDIA”.

“Today people are seeing who all are a part of NDA. They work for the shoshit and vanchit, adivasis and peechhdas (exploited and deprived, tribals and backward communities)… It is dedicated to the people of the country,” PM Modi had mentioned.

“Its motto is Nation First, Progress First, Empowerment of the People First… NDA is doing social justice as envisioned by Gandhi and Ambedkar,” he had added.