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Tag: Bhartruhari Mahtab

  • Meet Bhartruhari Mahtab, New Pro-Tem Speaker Of Lok Sabha |

    New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday appointed BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab as pro tem Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha. The appointment of Mehtab was done by President Murmu as a pro-tem Speaker under Article 95(1) of the Constitution.

    Suresh Kodikunnil, Thalikkottai Rajuthevar Baalu, Radha Mohan Singh, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were appointed to aid the Speaker Protem during the oath-taking of the newly-elected members.

    According to Article 94 of the Constitution, the office of the speaker becomes vacant immediately before the first meeting of the new Lok Sabha. In that case, the President appoints a Member of the House as Speaker pro tem to perform the duties of the Speaker.

    The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha is scheduled to begin on June 24 while the Rajya Sabha session will begin on June 27. 

    Who Is Bhartruhari Mahtab?
    Bhartruhari Mahtab switched from Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to BJP just a few days before the Lok Sabha elections. He secured a seat from the Cuttack Parliamentary constituency and defeated BJD Santrupt Misra. Mahtab represented the same constituency earlier as a BJD leader and now as a BJP candidate.

    In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mahtab, contested from as BJD leader and won against BJP leader Prakash Misra. In 201, he was honoured with the Parliamentarian Award. He is the son of Dr Harekrushna Mahatab, who served as the Chief Minister of Odisha two times.

  • Lok Sabha Polls: In 8th Candidate List, BJP Bets On Turncoats In Odisha, Punjab; Fields Ex-Ambassador From Amritsar |

    The Bharatiya Janata Party has so far announced the names of 118 candidates for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The party released its eighth list of 11 candidates yesterday which had names of several turncoats and even a surprising name of a foreign ambassador. The list had names from three states – Punjab, Odisha and West Bengal. The list puts BJP way ahead of the Congress as the grand old party is yet to announce names on the majority of seats. The Congress has so far released names of 218 candidates. 

    BJP’s Odisha List

    The BJP nominated Bhartruhari Mahtab from the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat. A sitting MP from the seat on the BJD ticket, Mahtab recently joined the BJP. Mahtab, a six-time MP, had on March 22 resigned from the BJD. Other names in the list include Rabindra Narayan Behera, a former director of the National Informatics Centre, from Jajpur and Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi from Kandhamal. The BJP had earlier announced candidates for 18 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.

    BJP’s Punjab List

    The saffron party surprised everyone by fielding former Indian ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu from the Amritsar seat in Punjab. Hans Raj Hans, who lost their party ticket from North West Delhi, has now been fielded from the Amritsar seat. Former AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, who recently joined the BJP, got a ticket from the Jalandhar seat while former Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu got a ticket from Ludhiana. Dinesh Singh Babbu has replaced star Sunny Deol from the Gurdaspur seat. The party also fielded Preneet Kaur, wife of Capain Amarinder Singh, from Patiala.

    Why Sandhu From Amritsar?

    The BJP has been actively working to expand its support base among Sikhs, who constitute a majority in Punjab, with hopes of making significant gains in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party is particularly focused on reclaiming the Amritsar seat, which it hasn’t held since Navjot Singh Sidhu’s victory in 2009. However, Sidhu, now with the Congress party, currently holds the seat, represented by Gurjeet Singh Aujla. Both Arun Jaitley and Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP candidates and current Union ministers, faced defeat in the 2014 and 2019 elections respectively.

    BJP, Congress Candidate List So Far

    On March 2, released a list of 195 candidates. On March 13, it announced the names of 72 candidates. On March 21, the BJP released a list of 9 candidates for Tamil Nadu. On March 22, the party released another name of 15 candidates. On March 24, the party announced the names of 111 candidates and on March 26, the party announced three more candidates – two from Rajasthan and one from Manipur. The party released its seventh list on March 27 which had two names. On March 30, the party released the eighth list of 11 candidates. With this, the party has so far announced the names of 118 candidates. 

    Congress released its first list of 39 candidates on March 8. This was followed by 43 candidates in the second list on March 12, 57 candidates on March 21, 3 candidates on March 24, 46 candidates on March 46, 5 candidates on March 25, 5 candidates on March 26, 14 candidates on March 27 and 5 candidates on March 29. The party additionally announced the name of KV Gowtham from Karnataka’s Kolar on March 30. With this, the party has announced names of a total of  218 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.