The Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) government is learnt to have made up its mind to offer the post of deputy speaker to the BJP, the second largest party in the J&K Assembly.
Omar Abdullah (National Conference)
The Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) government is learnt to have made up its mind to offer the post of deputy speaker to the BJP, the second largest party in the J&K Assembly.
There were speculations that the seniormost NC MLA, Abdul Rahim Rather might be elected speaker of the Assembly and the BJP would propose its candidate for the post of deputy speaker.
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The Lt. Governor has appointed NC’s Mubarak Gul as Protem Speaker for administering oath to the newly elected MLAs in Srinagar on 21 October. The election of the speaker and deputy speaker will be held on any specific day after that.
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It is worth mentioning that during the PDP-BJP coalition government in 2015 when the NC was in the Opposition, its leader Nazir Gurezi was made deputy speaker.
The issue of deputy speaker might be discussed in the meeting of the BJP that is expected to be held shortly to choose the candidate for being nominated as leader of the BJP legislature party.
The BJP Parliamentary Board has appointed Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh, as observers for the election of the BLP.
The NC has a strength of 42 in the Assembly followed by 29 of BJP. Congress won 6 seats, CPI(M) 1, AAP 1, PDP 3, Peoples Conference 1 and AIP 1.
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