Flagging the possibility of horse-trading and violation of Constitutional provisions, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said Saturday that a BJP Speaker in the new Lok Sabha would be “dangerous for parliamentary traditions”. The post, he said, should be held by the TDP, the NDA’s second biggest member with 16 MPs.
Singh’s remarks came a day before the NDA was set to form government at the Centre for a third straight term. BJP, 32 seats below majority mark, will need the support of its allies, especially Andhra Pradesh CM-designate Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).
You have exhausted your monthly limit of free stories.
Read more stories for free with an Express account.
“Never in the Parliamentary history of the country were more than 150 MPs suspended, but the BJP did it… So, if the Speaker is from BJP, bills will be passed in arbitrary manner by violating the Constitution, parties like TDP, JD(U) and other small parties will be broken and forced to join (the BJP). BJP has a history of that,” Singh, a Rajya Sabha member the party’s in-charge for UP, told reporters in Lucknow.
AAP, an INDIA bloc member, won three Lok Sabha seats from Punjab.
Calling the Speaker’s post the new NDA government’s “first test”, Singh said he and his party believe that if the post remained with the BJP, then MPs “who raise their voice will be thrown out of the House”.
“If the Speaker will be from TDP and not from the BJP, the threat of breaking parties from NDA and (Opp) INDIA (bloc) both will be contained,” he claimed. Singh said the INDIA bloc will wait for the BJP’s decision on the Speaker’s selection, but suggested the alliance discuss their moves should the BJP retain the post.
Lalmani is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, and is based in New Delhi. He covers politics of the Hindi Heartland, tracking BJP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RLD and other parties based in UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Covered the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024; Assembly polls of 2012, 2017 and 2022 in UP along with government affairs in UP and Uttarakhand. ... Read More