Lalu now a backbencher in Lok Sabha

It seems it’s a lonely road ahead for former railway minister Lalu Prasad. Not only has he been shunned from the Cabinet, now the UPA government is in no mood to accommodate him in the front row seats in the Lok Sabha, reports Saroj Nagi.

It seems it’s a lonely road ahead for former railway minister Lalu Prasad. Not only has he been shunned from the Cabinet, now the UPA government is in no mood to accommodate him in the front row seats in the Lok Sabha.

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Which means the RJD chief , with only four MPs, would now have to sit somewhere in the middle or backbenches.

According to the list submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, the Congress and its constituent parties in government has accounted for 273 MPs and are entitled to around nine of the 20 front row seats.

Of these, the BJP-NDA’s share is half a dozen, including that of deputy Speaker Karia Munda.

The first three seats on the front row meant for the UPA are earmarked for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of House Pranab Mukherjee and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

And with a total of 78 Union ministers, the UPA would need the first five rows for them.

This pushes Lalu — who sat on the fifth seat in the first row for five years during the UPA’s first term — to somewhere at the back unless the Speaker, the final authority in such matters, decides otherwise.

The Speaker is likely to finalise the seating arrangement shortly so that each MP gets a division number before the Railway and Union Budgets are voted on.