BJP govt on defensive, why Opposition is smelling blood ahead of first Lok Sabha session

As the Opposition mounts pressure on the government over the NEET-UG and UGC-NET controversies and the issue of railway safety, the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha could be tumultuous, with Opposition leaders alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “does not have the ability to consider the concerns of different political parties”.

The probability of the first session, which begins on Monday, being a rocky one grows strong as the Congress tries to mobilise an issue-based common front of non-NDA parties against the Central government. Sources in the Opposition camp said although the INDIA bloc initially was in favour of arriving at a consensus with the Centre on issues such as the choice of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the government’s decision to not select eight-term Congress MP Kodikkunnil Suresh, the seniormost parliamentarian in the Lok Sabha, as the pro-tem Speaker “turned the atmosphere vicious”. On Thursday, President Droupadi Murmu announced that seven-term Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJP would serve as the pro-tem Speaker, drawing criticism from the Congress that said it was against convention.

“The decision to override the claims of K Suresh is not keeping with the spirit of multipartisanship required to run the House,” Congress MP Manish Tewari told The Indian Express. “The government needs to understand that the principal component does not have a majority in the Lok Sabha. If they feel that they can do what they did from 2014 to 2024, they will soon find out that they are sadly mistaken and it will be at their peril.”

In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won only 240 seats, falling 32 short of majority in the House. The Opposition INDIA alliance has 234 MPs in the Lower House.

The Congress, which