BJP's B Mahtab Now Pro-tem Speaker, Opposition Has Said Won't Assist Him

The 18th Lok Sabha is set to meet for the first time today on a stormy note as the Opposition returns to the House with more strength than last time after the general election denied a majority to the ruling BJP.

Besides the protest surrounding irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, the selection of the pro-tem Speaker has emerged as a key flashpoint between the treasury and the Opposition benches.

The pro-tem Speaker is a temporary post and the House chooses a member from among the seniormost MPs for this position. The primary role of the pro-tem Speaker is to administer the oath to the new members.

The BJP has chosen its leader Bhartruhari Mahtab, a seven-time MP who was earlier with the Biju Janata Dal, as the pro-tem Speaker. The Congress has opposed this, questioning why K Suresh, a Congress MP for eight terms, was not selected. Explaining the grounds for its choice, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has said that while Mr Mahtab has had seven consecutive terms as a Lok Sabha MP, Mr Suresh lost the polls in 1998 and 2004 and this is his fourth straight term in the House.

President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath to Mr Mahtab before the House meets today. He will serve as pro-tem Speaker till the election of the Speaker. The President has said seniormost members of the House -- K Suresh, T R Baalu, Radha Mohan Singh, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Sudip Bandyopadhyay will assist the pro-tem Speaker in administering oath to the new MPs.

The Congress has said MPs of the INDIA Opposition bloc -- Mr Suresh, Mr Baalu and Mr Bandyopadhyay -- will not assist during the oath as a mark of protest against the government's pro-tem Speaker choice. Mr Rijiju met the three senior MPs ahead of the session. Mr Baalu, it is learnt, told him that he won't be assisting Mr Mahtab.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has also questioned why the BJP did not choose its MP Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, also in his seventh consecutive term, for the post.

"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.

In response, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the Congress should make Mr 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 posted on X.

Mr Suresh, MP from Kerala's Mavelikara, said the government has done wrong. "We are claiming that an eighth-term MP should be the pro-tem Speaker...They have done wrong, and now the whole country is criticising the decision of the BJP government," he said.