New Delhi (PTI): The BJP, which had recently seen some open dissent in the wake of electoral defeat and subsequent appointments in the parliamentary party, has tried to settle its pecking order in the Lok Sabha where several of its top leaders have been elected.

In the seating arrangement submitted to the Lok Sabha, the party has said the Leader of the Opposition L K Advani will take the first seat in the front row for the opposition to the left of Deputy Speaker, who takes the first seat by convention.

To Mr. Advani's left will be Sushma Swaraj, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, followed by party president Rajnath Singh, former party president Murli Manohar Joshi and then the next senior most leader Jaswant Singh.

The seating arrangement for the BJP members in the Lok Sabha was conveyed by Ms. Swaraj to the House Secretary General while in the Rajya Sabha it was done by her counterpart S S Ahluwalia.

Soon after the constitution of the House and in the initial days there was a clamour for the front seats among the leaders, some of whom including Ananth Kumar, have been relegated to the second and third rows, now now that the first row has been settled.

In the second row, former cabinet ministers, party general secretaries, former governors and former chief ministers would be seated.

Other than the Chief Whips in both Houses, BJP has also appointed state-wise whips.

"The corner seat of each row would be occupied either by a whip or a lady MP," a BJP MP said. This has been done for better co-ordination. Interestingly, some of the whips are first time members.

Former cabinet ministers Yashwant Sinha, Satrughan Sinha and Shahnawaz Hussain would be seated on the second row, ahead of veteran MPs like Haren Pathak, former Minister of State Sumitra Mahajan and former Madhya Pradesh CM Kailash Joshi.

Those MPs who have been elected for the same number of times would be seated alphabetically. This would put Varun Gandhi behind Saroj Pandey and Nishikant Dubey, two other first-time MPs.

In the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, M Venkaiah Naidu and former Speaker Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena) would give company to Ahluwalia on the front row.

In the second row there, MPs like former CM of Uttarakhand B S Koshiyari and former Himachal Pradesh CM Shanta Kumar, former cabinet ministers Arun Shourie and CP Thakur, and former governor Rama Jois would be seated.