By: Ishtiyaq Kar
Srinagar, Oct 18 (KINS): As the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) government has decided to offer the Deputy Speaker post to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party’s General Secretary, Ashok Koul, said that they will first elect the Leader of the Opposition before making any decisions on the Deputy Speaker position.
Senior National Conference leader and seven-time MLA Abdul Rahim Rather is likely to be the new Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
The National Conference leadership has decided to offer the Deputy Speaker post to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the second-largest party in the House after the National Conference, which will serve as the main opposition party.
BJP General Secretary Ashok Koul said that offering the Deputy Speaker post to the opposition is not a new practice. “During the PDP-BJP government, when the NC was in opposition, its leader Nazir Gurezi was made Deputy Speaker. This is not unprecedented. We will first elect the Leader of the Opposition, and then our leaders will decide on the Deputy Speaker’s post,” Koul told news agency KINS.
Recently, the BJP Parliamentary Board appointed Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh, who oversees Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh UTs, as Central Observers.
Their role is to monitor the selection of the BJP’s Leader of the Legislature Party in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
Koul confirmed to KINS that a meeting to elect the Leader of the Legislature Party will be held soon, coordinated by the newly appointed Observers, likely within the coming week.
When asked about potential candidates for the Deputy Speaker post, Koul said that the party will decide after internal discussions.
This development mirrors a similar instance in 2015 when the PDP-BJP government, led by the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, allocated the Deputy Speaker post to the NC, despite its then diminished presence of just 15 seats. Nazir Gurezi was elected Deputy Speaker, while the Speaker’s position was held by BJP’s Kavinder Gupta, later succeeded by Dr. Nirmal Singh.
The NC emerged as the single largest party in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections with 42 seats, securing a comfortable majority in the 95-member House alongside its alliance partners, Congress and CPI(M), who won six and one seat, respectively. The BJP made significant gains, winning an all-time high of 29 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made its debut in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly by securing the Doda constituency.
Other notable results from the elections include the PDP, led by Mehbooba Mufti, which won three seats, and People’s Conference (PC), led by Sajad Gani Lone, and AIP, led by Engineer Rashid, each of which secured one seat from North Kashmir.(KINS)