31 May :The new Lok Sabha, with a more dominant Congress heading a coalition having a comfortable majority with its allies, opens its first session on Monday whose highlight would be the election of the Speaker and unfolding of UPA govt’s plan of action.
The first two days of the 15th Lok Sabha has been kept for newly elected members to take oath followed by election of the Speaker on 3rd June.
President Pratibha Patil would address the joint sitting of both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on 4th June which would chart out the road map of the second term of the Manmohan Singh government which came to power with renewed mandate as Congress alone secured 206 seats. The party had 145 seats in the previous House.
With pre-poll allies, the UPA was almost near the majority mark of 272 and back by post-poll partners, the coalition strength has gone up to 322.The Lok Sabha will have seven sittings while the Rajya Sabha would commence its session from 4th June.After the President’s address, the House would discuss and pass the motion of thanks to the President.Seniormost Lok Sabha member Manikrao Gavit of Congress has been appointed Protem Speaker by President Pratibha Patil.
Gavit (75) will perform the duties of the Speaker till the election of a new Speaker on 3rd June.
Nine-term member Gavit, who has a cumulative experience of 27 years and eight months in Lok Sabha, was elected from tribal constituency of Nandurbar in Maharashtra on a Congress ticket and served as Minister of State for Home in the UPA government.
The President also appointed a panel four senior members Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M), Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD), Biren Singh Engti (Congress) and Sumitra Mahajan (BJP) to administer oath to the newly elected members.
The first person to be administered oath will be Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee followed by Leader of Opposition L K Advani.
Given the bitter relations between the Opposition and the treasury benches in the previous Lok Sabha, Government has extended the olive branch to the opposition ahead of the first session.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal has assured the opposition that government would give full consideration to its viewpoint and sought cooperation in the smooth running of Parliament.
The session would conclude on 9th June.
Parliament will convene towards end of June for a longer session when the new government will present the full budget for 2009-10.