Adjacent Lok Sabha seats for jailed MPs Amritpal, Rashid
Jailed MPs Amritpal Singh from Punjab and Abdul Rashid Sheikh from Jammu and Kashmir have been allotted adjacent seats in the 18th Lok Sabha even though they cannot attend House proceedings being undertrials.
Seat No. 334 in the new Lok Sabha chambers has been set aside for Amritpal Singh, 31-year-old Waris Punjab De chief, who was elected as an Independent MP from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab.
Abdul Rashid Sheikh, who defeated National Conference vice-president and incumbent J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference president Sajjad Lone in the Baramulla parliamentary polls, will be Amritpal’s neighbour in seat No. 335 in the lower House.
Both MPs lodged in different jails — Singh in Dibrugarh in Assam and Sheikh in Tihar Jail — were brought under special security to the Lok Sabha on July 5 for swearing-in.
Although the two cannot attend proceedings being on trial, oath taking after being elected as MPs was their constitutional right.
Amritpal is facing charges under the National Security Act, while Sheikh Rashid has been in Tihar Jail in Delhi since August 2019 on charges of alleged terror financing. Rashid got interim bail to campaign in the recently held J&K elections.
Coming to other seats in the new LS chambers — Leader of Lok Sabha Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deputy leader Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will occupy the lead front row on the treasury bench side.
Front-row seats in the Lok Sabha have been allocated to BJP allies in the ruling NDA, including ministers HD Kumaraswamy (JD-S), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JDU), Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM), Chirag Paswan (LJP) and TDP’s Ram Mohan Naidu. These seats come from the BJP’s quota. With 240 MPs in a 543-member House, the BJP relies on its NDA partners to maintain a majority.
Gadkari gets seat in front row
The Lok Sabha secretariat’s first circular on seating arrangement mentioned seat No. 58 against Nitin Gadkari’s name. This seat is in the front row, but not in the same segment as PM, Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah. The circular was revised and a fresh one issued that said Gadkari would occupy seat No. 4 — marked “vacant” in the first LS note.
On the opposition side, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, K Suresh and Gaurav Gogoi have been given the front seats. In the previous Lok Sabha, the Opposition’s front row featured stalwarts like Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and then Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
In the new seating arrangement, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will occupy seat No. 517, positioned near senior Congress MP Manish Tewari (512), Deepender Singh Hooda (510) and former Punjab Deputy CM Sukhjinder Randhawa (508).
