LS to be adjourned on opening day after tributes to Munde

The first sitting of the 16th Lok Sabha on Wednesday will be adjourned for the day after paying tributes to Union minister Gopinath Munde who died in a road mishap on Tuesday.

Senior Congress MP Kamal Nath will be the Protem Speaker who will preside over the proceedings of the House till the election of the Speaker on June 6.

Nath will be administered oath by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan before the Lok Sabha assembles for the day.

Immediately after the House assembles, Lok Sabha Secretary General P Sreedharan will read out the notification constituting the 16th Lok Sabha.

The House will later take up the obituary reference to Munde, which will be moved by Nath.

After observing a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed member, the House will adjourn for the day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

As per the earlier schedule, newly-elected members were to be administered oath on Wednesday and on June 5.

The House could sit late on June 5 and would continue the exercise of oath taking by members till the afternoon of May 6, he said.

On June 6, a new Speaker will be elected by the House amid talk that BJP veteran Sumitra Mahajan is the frontrunner.

On June 9, President Mukherjee will address the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, laying down the roadmap of the new government.

The discussion on the Motion of Thanks will take place on June 10 and 11 before the session is adjourned sine die.

The Rajya Sabha has been convened from June 9.