Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
New Delhi: Senior BJP leader and eight-time Member of Parliament from Indore Sumitra Mahajan is most likely to take over as the next Speaker of the Lok Sabha, reports said on Wednesday.
The election of the new Speaker will be held on Friday. If elected, Sumitra Mahajan will be only the second woman Speaker ever.
Meira Kumar, who presided over the House for the last five years, was the first woman to grace the chair of Lok Sabha Speaker.
The death of senior cabinet minister Gopinath Munde in a road accident yesterday has cast a shadow of gloom over what was to have been a very special day for the BJP. A new session of Parliament commences today and the party gets to occupy the treasury benches after a decade.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath will take oath as pro-tem Speaker at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Presidential Palace, at 10 am today. The Lok Sabha will then convene and will be adjourned after paying tribute to Munde, who had won the Beed Lok Sabha seat in the General Election last month, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said.
Till a regular Speaker is elected, a pro-tem Speaker administers oath to a new House and conducts proceedings. The 543 newly elected MPs were scheduled to be sworn in over two days, but the government will now attempt to fast-track that process and complete it tomorrow.
On Monday, June 9, the President will address a joint session of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The week long session ends on June 11.
With PTI inputs
