Lok Sabha session from tomorrow

The new Lok Sabha, with a dominant Congress heading a coalition having a comfortable majority, opens its first session tomorrow whose highlights would be the election of the Speaker and the President's address, unfolding of UPA government's plan of action.

The first two days of the 15th Lok Sabha have been kept for newly elected members to take oath followed by election of the Speaker on June 3.

While initial reports spoke of the possibility of senior Congress member V Kishore Chandra Deo as the most likely choice for the Speaker's post, Union Minister and Congress' Dalit face Meira Kumar has emerged the dark horse for the post.

President Pratibha Patil would address the joint sitting of both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on June 4 which would chart out the road map of the second term of the Manmohan Singh government which came to power with renewed mandate as Congress alone secured 206 seats. The party had 145 seats in the previous House.

With pre-poll allies, the UPA is almost near the majority mark of 272 and backed by post-poll partners, the coalition strength has gone up to 322.

The first person to be administered oath will be Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee followed by Leader of Opposition L K Advani.

Given the bitter relations between the Opposition and the treasury benches in the previous Lok Sabha, the government has extended the olive branch to the opposition ahead of the first session.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal has assured the opposition that government would give full consideration to its viewpoint and sought cooperation in the smooth running of Parliament.

The session would conclude on June 9.

Parliament will convene towards end of June for a longer session when the new government will present the full Budget for 2009-10.