At Congress’ parliament strategy meeting, Opposition decides to put up joint candidate for deputy Rajya Sabha chairman
The deputy speaker presides over the Lok Sabha when the speaker is absent from house. In the current Lok Sabha, in the absence of speaker Om Birla, members of a panel of chairpersons preside over the House.
The Opposition parties have decided to put up a joint candidate for the post of Rajya Sabha deputy chairman. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Congress party’s parliament strategy group.
The Congress decided that it will reach out to various parties in this regard.
The Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson’s post fell vacant after Janata Dal (United) MP Harivansh retired in April this year.
There is, however, no word on the deputy speaker. The post couldn’t be elected in the budget session of the Lok Sabha which ended in March. And because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the legislative proceedings were affected so a discussion on the same could not be held.
The decision comes ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament starting September 14. The last date of filing the nominations is September 11.
Also Read: Only paper ballots for voting in Parliament’s monsoon session
The meeting was attended by party’s leaders in both houses including Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Congress deputy leaders in both houses and chief whips and party’s whips also attended the virtual meeting.
This was the first time that some of the letter-writers, who had demanded an overhaul of the party, came face to face with the Congress leadership after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting.
The Congress strategy group decided to raise the issue of restoration of the Question Hour in both houses during the session.
The Congress also decided to raise the issue of the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the wake of rise in daily number of cases and India taking the second spot in total cases in the world, besides the effect of lockdown.
(With inputs from agencies)
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