New Delhi : Seating arrangements for the 18th Lok Sabha have been finalised with Prime Minister Narendra Modi retaining his prime seat and newly-inducted Wayanad MP and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi getting a spot in the fourth row.
PM Modi’s seating remained unchanged at Seat No. 1, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah will occupy seat numbers 2 and 3, respectively.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, initially assigned to seat number 58 in the earlier circular, has now been reallocated to seat number 4 after a revised seating list was issued on Monday.
Seat numbers 4 and 5 were initially left vacant in the November 29 circular but were updated in the fresh directive.
Notably, seats for top ministers such as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and Health Minister JP Nadda remain vacant, as is customary for ministers who often operate outside the regular seating arrangement.
THE OPPOSITION BENCH
Senior opposition leaders have retained their positions in the front row. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, will occupy seat number 498, while Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is seated in seat number 355, and Trinamool Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Sudeep Bandopadhyay, has been allotted seat number 354.
Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal is positioned beside Rahul Gandhi at seat number 497, reinforcing the party’s front-row representation.
Among the reshuffles, SP MP Awadhesh Prasad, who had been prominently highlighted by Akhilesh Yadav after his Lok Sabha win from Faizabad, has been moved to the second row. He will now sit at seat number 357 alongside Dimple Yadav at seat number 358. Both the Trinamool Congress and SP are represented by a single leader each in the front row.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, making her debut as the MP from Wayanad, has been assigned a seat in the fourth row. She will occupy seat number 517 and will sit alongside Congress MPs Adoor Prakash from Kerala and Pradyut Bordoloi from Assam, both serving their second terms.
