New Delhi, May 18
President Pratibha Patil today dissolved the 14th Lok
Sabha, paving the way for the constitution of a new House, following the resignation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his council of ministers.
The 15th Lok Sabha will be constituted suo motu after the Election Commission notifies results of the just-concluded general elections. The notification is likely tomorrow, after which a brief session of the house will be called to administer oath to the MPs. The last day of this short
session will witness the election of the new Lok Sabha Speaker.
Till then, a pro-tem speaker will fill in the post, for which the name of CPM’s nine-time MP from Bankura Basudeb Acharia is doing rounds. Acharia was first elected to the seventh Lok Sabha in 1980 and was leader of the CPM in the outgoing Lok Sabha. He has been returned to the House for the ninth time this year.
According to the experts, a confidence vote would not be necessary considering the comfortable positioning of the Congress-led UPA, short of few numbers, to the magic figure of 272.
“It is not a constitutional obligation to have a vote of confidence. The President would normally ask for a trust motion if she is doubtful of the ability of a party to form a stable government or if there are contesting claims to government formation. In this case, there is no such doubt,” sources added.
