Despite being arch detractors on the home turf of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Dara Singh Chauhan of the Bahujan Samaj Party will have to sit next to each other in the first row in the Lok Sabha.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, whose party was routed in the general elections, has retained the first row courtesy of the Congress and will be sharing the bench along with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.
Though they are not in the same camp despite being in the Opposition, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Basudev Acharia are the 'partners' in the first row. As per the division numbers alloted to members, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader T R Baalu and Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Sis Ram Ola, who failed to make it to the Cabinet, are also sharing the first row seat.
Besides Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the top five of the ruling alliance are Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, P Chidambaram and Mamata Banerjee in the same order. There are 20 seats in the front row and the Bharatiya Janata Party stalwarts who have made it are Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, BJP Deputy Leader Sushma Swaraj, party Chief Rajnath Singh, and senior party leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh.Deputy Speaker Karia Munda occupies the first seat on the Opposition benches.
The youth brigade of the Congress continues to be in the eighth row with Rahul Gandhi sharing the bench with Sandeep Dikshit, Priya Dutt, Deepender Singh Hooda as also Union Ministers Arun Yadav, Prateek Patil, R P N Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Vincent Pala, Pradeep Jain and Agatha Sangma.
As against this, another 'Gandhi' BJP's Varun has been relegated to the 10th row, while his mother Maneka will be in the third row in the Opposition ranks. Despite being part of the United Progressive Alliance, former Union Minister Shibu Soren has been alloted second row just behind Lalu Prasad and Deve Gowda.
While Nationalist Congress Party member and Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is in the third row, former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is in the sixth row. Incidentally, Kumaraswamy shares the bench with another former Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh of Congress. Jagdambika Pal, who was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for one day, is also on the same bench. Parting company with BJP has made Kalyan Singh slip from the first row to fourth row. Manikrao Gavit, who was the Protem Speaker, is in the second row, as also former Union Minister Vilas Muttemwar. Former cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin is a backbencher towards the treasury side and almost similar is the case of former crickters Kirti Azad and Navjot Singh Sidhu
