Harivansh Narayan Singh takes charge as RS vice-president for third time amid opposition boycott

New Delhi: Nominated member Harivansh is likely to be elected as the Vice-President of the Rajya Sabha as five notifications have been received in his favour, while the opposition has not issued any notification recommending a candidate. The election for the position will take place on Friday.After Harivansh’s term ended on April 9, the position of deputy chairman of the House of Federation became vacant. He served two terms as House Vice Chairman and would be serving his third term if elected. The deadline for receiving notices of election motions is 12 noon on Thursday.Meanwhile, the opposition has decided to boycott the vice-chairman election, with Congress MP Jairam Ramesh citing three reasons. “First of all, the Modi government has not appointed a deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha for seven years. This has never happened before,” he said on X.Ramesh went on to emphasize that although Harivansh’s second term as deputy chairman ended on April 9, he was nominated by the president as a member of the House of Representatives a day later and is now the NDA deputy chairman candidate for the third term. A Congress party spokesman said: “Nomination by the President for the post of Deputy Chairman of the House of Commons has never been considered before.”“Thirdly, all of this was done without any meaningful consultation with the opposition,” he added. “For these three reasons and as a mark of protest, but without any disrespect to the learned Harivansh, the opposition has sadly decided to boycott the vice chairman election,” Ramesh said.The RS MP added that the opposition hopes that “Harivanshi 3.0 will be more inclusive and receptive to the opposition’s demands”.