SRINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that it will first elect its Leader of the Legislature Party in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly before deciding on the National Conference’s (NC) offer for the Deputy Speaker post. BJP General Secretary Ashok Koul confirmed that the party’s leadership will make a decision after internal discussions, but only once the key leadership role in the Assembly has been filled.
This statement comes after the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference government decided to offer the Deputy Speaker position to the BJP, the second-largest party in the House after the NC. Koul clarified that the party’s focus remains on selecting the Leader of the Opposition, and any decision regarding the Deputy Speaker post will follow this step.
“Offering the Deputy Speaker post to the opposition is not new. During the PDP-BJP government, when the NC was in opposition, its leader Nazir Gurezi was made Deputy Speaker. This is not unprecedented. We will first elect the Leader of the Opposition, and then our leaders will decide on the Deputy Speaker’s post,” local news gatherer KINS quoted Koul saying.
The National Conference, which emerged as the largest party in the recent Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections with 42 seats, has proposed to allocate the Deputy Speaker role to the BJP as part of the legislative framework. Abdul Rahim Rather, a senior NC leader and seven-time MLA, is widely expected to be appointed as the new Speaker of the Assembly.
The BJP, having secured 29 seats, a significant rise from previous elections, will serve as the primary opposition party. The BJP’s Parliamentary Board recently appointed Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh, who oversees Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, as Central Observers. They will monitor the election of the BJP’s Leader of the Legislature Party, with a meeting scheduled to take place within the coming week.
This development mirrors a similar instance in 2015 when the PDP-BJP coalition government allocated the Deputy Speaker post to the NC, despite the NC holding only 15 seats at the time. Nazir Gurezi was elected as Deputy Speaker, while the Speaker’s position was held by BJP’s Kavinder Gupta, later succeeded by Dr Nirmal Singh.
In the recent elections, alongside the NC’s 42 seats, the Congress and CPI(M) won six and one seat, respectively. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made its debut in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, securing the Doda constituency. Other notable results included the PDP winning three seats, while the People’s Conference (PC), led by Sajad Gani Lone, and the AIP, led by Engineer Rashid, each secured one seat in North Kashmir.
