As the suspense over the Lok Sabha Speaker post builds, sources of India TV revealed on Tuesday (June 18) that the top office of the Lower House of Parliament is likely to go to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the position of Deputy Speaker may be assigned to an NDA ally. The I.N.D.I.A bloc has demanded the Deputy Speaker post, which has traditionally been given to the Opposition. Notably, the 17th Lok Sabha did not have anyone occupying this office.

A meeting of NDA leaders took place at the residence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Attendees included Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Manohar Lal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kiren Rijiju, S. Jaishankar, Virendra Kumar, and Annapurna Devi. Leaders from the constituent parties of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), such as Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh of Janata Dal (United) and Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), were also present. Both Lalan Singh and Chirag Paswan are ministers in the central government.

The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha is set to begin on June 24. During this session, new members of the lower house will be sworn in, and the election of the Lok Sabha Speaker will take place on June 26. According to sources, the list of speakers for the President's address was discussed in the NDA meeting.

Additionally, a separate meeting of the Maharashtra BJP core group was held at the party headquarters to strategize for the upcoming state assembly elections later this year. The meeting was chaired by BJP President JP Nadda, with Amit Shah and other top party leaders in attendance.