Smriti Irani gets front row seat in Lok Sabha

Union Minister Smriti Irani, who handed over a shock defeat to outgoing Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, has been allotted a first-row seat in the Lok Sabha, signalling her ascent in the BJP hierarchy.

Smriti will share the front bench, which is directly in front of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, with Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda.

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad have also got the coveted first row seats.

The Speaker allotted the division numbers to all the members late on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Chemical and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadanada Gowda will occupy the first six seats on the Treasury benches in the said order.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will occupy the seat right behind the prime minister as per convention.

Union minister Arvind Sawant, the Shiv Sena representative in the council of ministers, and JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh have also been given the front row seats.

In the Opposition ranks, YSRCP leader P V Midhun Reddy and TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay will occupy the front row.

First term members from the TMC, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan Ruhi and Mohua Moitra— who have been creating waves in the House—, will be seated together in the second last row with AAP member Bhagwant Mann.

Nusrat's will be seated behind one of the pillars in the House.

As reported by DH on July 2, Congress president Rahul Gandhi will occupy the second row seat right behind the front row seat reserved for the deputy speaker.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, DMK leader T R Baalu and Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav have been allotted the front row seats on the Opposition benches. The aisle seat next to the one allotted to Mulayam has been left vacant.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah and NCP leader Supriya Sule have been allotted the second row seat.

DMK members Kanimozhi and A Raja, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Independent member Mohan Delkar will be in the third row. JD(S) member Prajwal Revanna will be seated along with Congress member Manish Tewari in the fifth row.