A new argument has started between the Central Government and the opposition group known as INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) about where members should sit in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament). The Congress party is accusing the ruling BJP government of not sticking to the agreed plan for seating allocation.
Normally, for every 28 members of a party, they get one seat in the front row. According to insiders, the INDIA bloc was given seven front-row seats, not including seats for the Trinamool Congress (TMC), led by Mamata Banerjee. The opposition decided how to share these seats: one for the Leader of the Opposition, three for Congress, two for the Samajwadi Party (SP), and one for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
However, later on, the government reduced the number of seats for the Samajwadi Party by one, moving their MP from Faizabad, Awadhesh Prasad, to a seat in the second row. Akhilesh Yadav from SP expressed his frustration after this change. The Congress and SP protested this decision and spoke to the concerned minister about their problem.
Moreover, senior leaders from the DMK and NCP (the Sharad Pawar faction) complained about being pushed back to the seventh row, which they felt didn’t reflect their experience or importance.
Even some members of the ruling NDA coalition were unhappy with their seats. For instance, senior TDP MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy expressed his disappointment about being placed in the eighth row; last time, he had a better spot in the second row.
In response, Speaker Om Birla stepped in, saying, “No member should question the seating arrangements in Parliament while in the House. If you have concerns, please discuss them privately with us.”
Some sources indicated that the Samajwadi Party was not happy with Congress for not being more forceful with the government about the seating issues. But Akhilesh Yadav responded that he wasn’t upset with Congress and hinted that the BJP was trying to create divisions within the INDIA bloc.
Before the new winter session of Parliament began, the seating plan for the 18th Lok Sabha got updated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi still hold their front-row seats—seat numbers 1 and 498, respectively. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sits next to Modi in seat number 2, followed by Home Minister Amit Shah in seat number 3. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, who started out in the back row, was moved to seat number 4 beside Amit Shah.
On the opposition side, Congress leader KC Venugopal sits next to Rahul Gandhi in seat number 497. New MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has a seat in the fourth row (seat number 517), while Akhilesh Yadav from Samajwadi Party sits in the front row at seat number 355. Senior Congress leaders like Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor are assigned to the fourth and third rows, respectively. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress leader Sudeep Bandopadhyay has seat number 354.