Lok Sabha seating plan: With Seat no. 466, Rahul Gandhi in second row

New Delhi, Aug 01: As per the seating arrangement announced for the newly elected members of the 17th Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi occupied the first seat in the first row, while the former president of Congress, Rahul Gandhi, was assigned the 466th seat in the second row.

Party MPs Shashi Tharoor also occupies the second row along with DMK MPs Kanimozhi and A Raja.

The new seating arrangement in the House indicated the political power shift.

Meanwhile, the front row of the Lok Sabha will have some new faces. Smriti Irani, the first time MP of the BJP who defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi has been allotted a seat in the front row of the Lok Sabha.

Along with Irani, Union Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad too has been allotted a seat in the front row. Along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister, Amit Shah, Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh and transport minister Nitin Gadkari, the others who occupy the front row are development minister, Narendra Singh Tomar and Sadananda Gowda.

There is a decline in the presence of the Opposition MPs in the front row.

The NDA's overall share in the front row has increased marginally. The Congress' on the other hand is stuck at 2 after it bagged just 51 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

The seating arrangements have been cleared by Om Birla, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha under Rule 4 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. The Speaker is guided by direction 22(a) which states that 'the allotment of bloc of seats in the House is in proportion to the strength of the party and the total number of seats available in the chamber.