Rajnath Singh chairs meet on Parliament strategy, Speaker’s post discussed

New Delhi, June 18

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is deputy leader of the House in Lok Sabha, on Tuesday chaired a meeting of senior ministers and some allies to deliberate on the strategy for the upcoming Parliament session.

Allies comfortable with Modi’s call

The BJP has reportedly asked its allies to suggest potential candidates for the Speaker’s post. However, the allies have said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call on the matter would be acceptable to all.

Sources said discussions also centred on probable candidates for the election of the Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Speaker’s post.

Union ministers S Jaishankar, Manohar Lal Khattar, Bhupender Yadav, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kiren Rijiju, Annapurna Devi, JD (U)’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh and LJP’s Chirag Paswan attended the meeting.

The names Bhartruhari Mahtab, a seven-term MP who recently joined the BJP and Andhra Pradesh BJP chief D Purandeshwari who won from the Rajamundhry Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh were on the table, with sources saying the discussions are not final. The LS Speaker’s election is scheduled for June 26. The session begins on June 24 and will see newly elected MPs take oath on the first two days.

The BJP is also learnt to have asked other allies to suggest potential candidates for the Speaker’s post with all allies today saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call on the matter would be acceptable. Once the BJP reaches an agreement on a potential LS Speaker election candidate, Rajnath Singh is likely to engage the Opposition also in order to build consensus on the issue.