Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bhartruhari Mahtab took oath as the pro-tem Speaker of the Lok Sabha on Monday ahead of the beginning of the first day of the session. He was administered the oath by President Droupadi Murmu and will later administer oath of member of Parliament to the newly-elected MPs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Council of Ministers.
The development came amid a row between Congress and the BJP over appointment of pro-tem Speaker with the grand old party questioning eight-term Lok Sabha member Kodikunnil Suresh was not given the chance.
In a social media post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "Kodikunnil Suresh of the INC, who is in his eighth term, should have been Speaker Protem. But Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJP has been appointed on the flimsy grounds that he has a greater claim because this is his seventh consecutive term." "If this argument is adopted, then why has Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, a BJP MP who is also in his seventh consecutive term, not been considered? Is it because he is a Dalit like Suresh?" he asked.
Responding to the Congress leader's post, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the Congress should make Suresh the Leader of the Opposition.
"If you are so concerned about the political career of Shri Kodikunnil Suresh, I would urge you to make him the Leader of the Opposition and the CM face of the UDF for the 2026 Kerala elections. Why stress so much for a temporary position?" he said on 'X'.
On the appoitnment of Mahtab, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the former has the longest uninterrupted tenure as a member of the Lower House. He said that Suresh, though an eight-term MP, was not a member of the Lok Sabha in 1998 and 2004 and hence did not have an uninterrupted tenure.