Poll panel appoints secretary general of RS as returning officer for election of VP
The poll panel also appointed Garima Jain and Vijay Kumar, joint secretary and director respectively in RS secretariat, as assistant returning officers. The V-P election has been necessitated due to the post falling vacant upon resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
EC had earlier said it had started pre-announcement activities, after the completion of which it would announce the election schedule "as soon as possible".
Election Commission conducts election to the office of vice-president as per its mandate under Article 324, and in line with Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 and the rules made under the Act. As per convention, either secretary general, Lok Sabha or secretary general, Rajya Sabha is appointed as returning officer by rotation.
During the last Vice-Presidential election, the secretary general of the Lok Sabha was appointed as the returning officer. Gazette notifications regarding the appointment of the returning officer and assistant returning officer for vice-presidential election 2025 were issued on Friday.
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NDTV
26 minutes ago
- NDTV
10 Minutes To 5 pm: How Centre Beat The Deadline On Jagdeep Dhankhar
New Delhi: It was almost 5 pm. After that, the day's affairs would have been postponed to the next day in parliament. But the government was firm about sealing the fate of Jagdeep Dhankhar without delay. Just 10 minutes before 5 pm, on July 21, a sealed envelope was handed over to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. That was the end of Mr Dhankhar's journey as Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman. Later that night, Mr Dhankhar resigned as Vice President. He said that his sudden exit was to prioritise his health, but NDTV later revealed a string of events that led to the abrupt exit of a leader who had proved his loyalty to the ruling party on multiple occasions. The trigger was an Opposition-sponsored move to remove a high court judge who had been at the centre of a massive cash recovery controversy, it was earlier reported. Sources told NDTV that Mr Dhankhar had accepted the Opposition's notice to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma, bypassing the Centre's plans to target corruption in the judiciary. The Vice President, functioning as the Rajya Sabha Chairman, mentioned the opposition's notice to impeach Justice Varma in the Rajya Sabha despite a senior minister making it clear to him that the government was not in favour of the move. Sources later said the Opposition-backed impeachment motion was not admitted in the House. The fallout apparently left Mr Dhankhar with no choice but to resign immediately, without any window for postponement. What Happened Between Morning And Evening On July 21 morning, Mr Dhankhar attended the Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha. During this, he told the ministers to ask the government when the Prime Minister would speak in the House on Operation Sindoor. This question appeared to have annoyed the ministers, who asserted neither the chair nor the opposition can decide when the PM will speak in the House. After the BAC meeting, Mr Dhankhar went home for lunch. This is when he got a call from a senior minister, twice. But the Vice President declined to speak to him. This was the tipping point. The centre realised that the Dhankhar chapter was over, said sources. At 4 pm, he went back to the Rajya Sabha and mentioned the opposition's proposal against Justice Verma. By then, the government had already strategised against the Vice President - a campaign was ready to oust him. At 4:30 pm, a second session of the BAC was scheduled, but no government representative turned up. Meanwhile, all Rajya Sabha MPs of the NDA had gathered in Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's office, where their signatures were collected on a proposal for Mr Dhankhar's removal. Sources suggest the NDA had the support of 134 MPs on this matter. The government was keen on ending the matter on that day itself and not postponing it to the next day, sources said. The NDA proposal was handed over to Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal in a sealed envelope. He carried it to the Chairman's chamber and submitted the envelope to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat at 4:50 pm. While it is confirmed that the proposal was related to Mr Dhankhar's removal, official sources are tight-lipped on the content of the letter. Senior ministers had briefed the NDA MPs in groups of 10 on the matter, and even given them freedom to withdraw their signatures if they wanted.
The Wire
26 minutes ago
- The Wire
Will the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Allow Opposition to Speak This Time?
Government The roles played by presiding officers, Om Birla and Jagdeep Dhankhar (now retired), in not allowing opposition leaders to speak is well known. In the context of the much awaited discussion on Operation Sindoor in both the Houses of Parliament the big question agitating all concerned is if opposition leaders (some of whom were enlisted by Modi regime in the all party delegation to explain to rest of the world about it) would be allowed by Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, Harivansh, to speak in parliament without the Chairs coming in their way to express their views. This critical issue is being flagged because in the past neutrality of Birla and Singh as presiding officers has been questioned in the past because they did not allow opposition leaders to speak properly on crucial issues. In case of Singh, he made an egregious blunder of violating the article 100 of the Constitution by not allowing DMK MP Tiruchi Siva's demand for actual voting on agriculture bills in September 2020 and later when confronted with irrefutable evidence against his action he justified it on the specious grounds that the House was not in order. Modi has treated the opposition with disdain and it was reflected in his statement in parliament, ' Ek akela bhari (he alone weighs heavily)," over the opposition. And when he faced heavy odds and his image as a strong leader suffered hugely after US President Donald Trump announced the cease fire, four days after Operation Sindoor, and India did so a few hours later, he decided to send all party delegations to explain to the leaders and peoples of the world in several countries in defence of Operation Sindoor. Now that opposition leaders did their best at the global level, they can't face hurdles from the aforementioned presiding officers in the Parliament of India, representing the supreme will of the people, to articulate their views and opinions Nadda's statement on expunction Jagdeep Dhankhar, the former vice-president of India and chairman, Rajya Sabha, resigned from his office ostensibly on health grounds on July 21, the first day of the current monsoon of parliament, ostensibly because he incurred the wrath of Modi regime after he allowed Leader of Opposition of the House, Mallikarjun Kharge, to speak in detail about the massacre 26 civilians in Pahalgam following the self-admitted intelligence failure by the Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha. Kharge flagged the claims of Trump on 25 occasions that he had brokered cease fire and referred to statements of India's multiple defence officials about the loss of fighter jets by India. Leader of the House J.P. Nadda very surprisingly charged that Kharge shared all the details of Operation Sindoor and asserted by saying, 'Whatever I will say will go on record. You should know", implying that nothing the opposition said would be recorded. Those remarks were not expunged by Dhankhar. This clearly indicated that the opposition leaders might face hurdles while participating in the discussions on Operation Sindoor in the Parliament. Earlier unenviable record of presiding officers Even earlier, the roles played by presiding officers, Birla and Dhankhar in 2023 in not allowing opposition leaders to speak was remarked upon scathingly by editorials of The Hindu and Indian Express. The Hindu editorial titled 'Discipline and discussion' said' … Parliament is the forum where the government is answerable to the people' sharply charging that the decision of the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, and the Speaker of Lok Sabha to expunge parts of the speeches of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi made in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively on the Adani issue constituted a travesty of democracy. It noted, 'Parliament is the platform where the Opposition has the responsibility to ask questions of the government, which the Council of Ministers has the responsibility to answer'. It proceeded to indict the presiding officers by stating that it would be a mockery of democratic values '…if the Opposition is penalised for seeking accountability from the government, which in turn is allowed to hide behind rules and obfuscate the issue.' The Indian Express, in its editorial very derisively wrote, 'By engaging in what looks like a partisan political exercise against the Opposition, V.P. Dhankar undermines the parliament, his office.' During the 17th Lok Sabha, several opposition MPs found it difficult to discharge their duties as effective legislators due to the restrictions they faced while participating in the discussions in the House. When a no-confidence motion was moved by the opposition parties against the Narendra Modi government and raging violence in Manipur was discussed, two MPs, R.K. Ranjan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was a minister of state for external affairs in the Modi cabinet, and Lorho S. Pfoze of the Naga People's Front (supporting the Modi government), were told to keep quiet because the Union home minister Amit Shah was speaking on behalf of the government. Later Pfoze, while speaking to Barkha Dutt, said with anguish, 'The government should have first asked me to speak even if I didn't make a formal request. I wanted to speak on behalf of my people.' He also remarked that fifty of the questions he asked on Manipur were not taken up, except one on education. Those examples show how the presiding officers did not allow opposition MPs to speak up and even some of the ruling party members were prevented from speaking when the Modi regime faced embarrassing situations in the context of Manipur violence. In fact the post of deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha, which by convention is held by the opposition, has remained unfilled for six years; this too shows the ruling party's disregard for parliamentary norms. So the use of services of opposition leaders on Operation Sindoor must be accompanied by allowing them to speak to hold the government to account on the floor of the parliament. S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to former President KR Narayanan. He was earlier joint secretary in the Rajya Sabha secretariat. This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
New Indian Express
26 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Opposition leaders protest against SIR in Parliament complex
Several Members of Parliament from the INDIA bloc on Tuesday staged a protest in the Parliament House complex, voicing strong opposition to the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter roll in Bihar. The leaders demanded an immediate rollback of the exercise, which they claim is an attempt to disenfranchise voters ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. MPs from the Congress, DMK, TMC, RJD, Left parties, and other allies gathered on the steps of Makar Dwar before the day's proceedings began. Holding placards that read 'Stop vote loot' and featuring imagery suggesting collusion between the Election Commission and the government, the MPs raised slogans such as 'Vote ki chori bandh karo' (Stop vote theft) and 'SIR wapas lo' (Rollback SIR).
