By IANS,
New Delhi: Yet another awkward moment awaits Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which recently saw a change in guard following a series of pitfalls, when veteran leader L.K. Advani and former party president Rajnath Singh have to change their seats in the lower house of Parliament.
On Dec 18, Advani handed over the baton of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to Sushma Swaraj and assumed charge as the first chairman of the BJP Parliamentary Party. Sushma was earlier the deputy leader of BJP in Lok Sabha.
He will now have to leave his seat in the Lok Sabha for Swaraj.
The new arrangement will come into effect during the budget session of parliament starting Feb 22.
“A seating re-arrangement needs to be done. That will be inter-changing (within the BJP). There is a seat earmarked for the Leader of Opposition in the house,” a Lok Sabha secretariat official told IANS.
Advani will, however, continue to sit in the front row.
But former BJP president Rajnath Singh will have to go to the second row, sources said.
Deputy leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde will be elevated to the front row. Till now, he had sat in the second row.
During the winter session of parliament, expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh had lost his front row seat in the opposition ranks and had to move to the third row in the Lok Sabha.
Singh, 71, was given seat number 371 in the third row in the Lok Sabha, which falls in the fifth block accommodating members from small parties.