18th LS set for combative first session

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Friday accused the Opposition, especially the Congress, of "spreading lies" and "misleading" people by stoking controversy over the naming of Bhartruhari Mahtab as pro-tem Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha.

- ARCHIS MOHAN

The INDIA bloc said the government was flouting parliamentary norms by ignoring the claims of the Congress' K Suresh to be pro-tem Speaker.

Suresh, into his eighth term, is the seniormost member of the Lok Sabha, not Mahtab, who is into his seventh term, said the Congress. The government's attitude was "confrontational" and betrayed its intent to continue with its "bulldozer politics", said party leader Jairam Ramesh. He alleged the BJPled NDA picked Mahtab over Suresh since the latter was a Dalit. The Trinamool Congress' (TMC's) Derek O'Brien said the BJP was trying to show that nothing has changed in this term, but much has.