The Speaker for the 18th Lok Sabha will be chosen tomorrow. Senior BJP MP Om Birla, who was also the Speaker in the last Lok Sabha, is the NDA nominee for the post this time as well. On the other hand, the Opposition INDIA bloc has fielded Congress MP K Suresh for the post. Both the candidates today filed their nominations for the Speaker’s post for which the election is scheduled to be held tomorrow.
Despite hectic parley, the government and Opposition had failed to reach a consensus for the post. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, Lok Sabha speaker should be elected unanimously and unopposed. He said, no election was held till date for the post of Speaker since independence and the government talked to the floor leaders of the opposition parties to build consensus on the name of Lok Sabha speaker. He said Congress led opposition have come up with conditions and demanded the Deputy Speaker post. Mr. Rijiju said that consensus should not be conditional and they are ready to have a separate decision on the selection of Deputy Speaker. He also appealed to the opposition bloc to reconsider their decision.
Talking to media outside Parliament, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and J P Nadda met with Congress leader KC Venugopal and DMK MP TR Baalu to build consensus on the selection of Lok Sabha Speaker. Mr. Goyal said they were informed that the Deputy Speaker issue will be dealt with at the time of its election.
Talking to media outside the Parliament, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that the Opposition is ready to extend support to the NDA nominee for the speaker post provided that the Deputy Speaker post must be given to the opposition.
The election for the post of Speaker will take place tomorrow. Our correspondent has filed this report:
As per the Article 93 of the Constitution, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is elected on simple majority. It means that a candidate who receives more than half the votes from the members present in the House will be elected as the Speaker. Although the ruling NDA has numbers in its favour, it is likely that Om Birla will get a second term this time as well. However, the resurgent opposition is trying to put up a fight by fielding their nominee. Mr Birla, who was also the Speaker in the last Lok Sabha, is representing Kota Bundi Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan. He is representing the constituency for the third term. On the other hand, Opposition candidate K Suresh of Congress is an eight-time MP. He is currently representing Mavelikkara Lok Sabha seat of Kerala.
