BJP leader and seven-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab was on Thursday appointed as pro-tem Speaker of the Lok Sabha. The pro-tem Speaker will administer the oath/affirmation to the newly elected members of the 18th Lok Sabha and preside over the Lower House till the election of the Speaker.
In a newly constituted Lok Sabha, the Speaker is elected through a simple majority. Before the Speaker is chosen, a pro-tem Speaker is appointed to perform crucial responsibilities. ‘Pro-tem’ signifies ‘for the time being’ or ‘temporarily’. The primary role of the pro-tem Speaker is to administer oaths to newly elected Members of Parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Mahtab, 66, as the pro-tem Speaker and he will be assisted by senior members K Suresh (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK), Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste (both BJP) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC).
Who is Bhartruhari Mahtab?
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Mahtab had switched from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to BJP on March 28 this year. Along with him, former two-time Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP from Berhampur Sidhant Mohapatra and well-known litterateur of Santali language Padma Shri Damayanti Beshra too jumped the ship on the same day.
He won from the Cuttack Parliamentary seat this time defeating his nearest rival Santrupt Misra of the BJD by a margin of over 57,000 votes. He has represented the constituency six times as a BJD leader and for the seventh time as a BJP candidate.
He secured 5,31,601 votes, while Misra got 4,74,524 votes in the 2024 polls.
In the 2019 elections, Mahtab, contesting from a BJD ticket, had won the Lok Sabha elections with a victory margin of over one lakh and had defeated BJP’s Prakash Misra.
According to data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Mahtab has declared total assets of Rs 19 crore. In the 2019 elections, he had declared assets worth Rs nine crore.
Mahtab is the son of Dr Harekrushna Mahatab, who served as the Chief Minister of Odisha two times, and who was popularly known by the sobriquet “Utkal Keshari”.
In 2017, he had won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.
The appointment of Mahtab has stirred up a massive controversy, with the Congress alleging that the convention of choosing the senior-most parliamentarian was not followed.
Congress General Secretary in-charge of Organisation KC Venugopal said that the appointment was “yet another attempt at destroying Parliamentary norms”.
“Bhartruhari Mahtab (a 7-term MP) has been appointed the pro-tem Speaker, superseding Kodikunnil Suresh, who will be entering his eighth term. It is an unquestioned norm that the senior-most MP presides over the proceedings of the House before the Speaker is duly elected. It is a matter of immense pride for our party that K Suresh, a leader from the marginalised section of society, has achieved this feat of being 8-term MP,” said Venugopal.
“The government should explain why it chose to overlook K Suresh, what was the factor that disqualified him from this post?” asked Venugopal.