Pro and opposition face to face for the post of speaker

Om Birla vs K. Suresh… Election for the post of Speaker will be held for the third time in 72 years

New Delhi: All efforts to build a consensus on the Lok Sabha Speaker have been wasted for now. The opposition has declared Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh as the India Block candidate just before the nomination deadline. Suresh also filed his nomination papers shortly after. Earlier, BJP MP Om Birla filed his nomination on behalf of the NDA. The last deadline for nominations was set at 12 noon.

This is the third time in 72 years that the Speaker’s election is going to be held. Prior to this, the Speaker’s election was held in 1952 and 1974. In independent India, for the first time in 1952, there was an election contest between GV Malvankar and Shankar Shantaram for the Speaker’s post. After that, the Speaker’s election was also held in 1976 (during the Emergency). At that time, the election was between Baligram Bhagat vs Jagannath Rao. Now, the election is going to be held for the third time in 2024. Till now, the Speaker has been elected by consensus between the ruling party and the opposition.

Earlier, an attempt was made by the NDA to build a consensus for the Speaker’s election and senior BJP leaders held talks with the leaders of the India Block. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju met different leaders and talked over the phone. Sources said that if there is a consensus with the opposition parties on the name of the Speaker, the post of Deputy Speaker can be given to the opposition. However, the opposition says that the Deputy Speaker post was not being given, so the matter got worse.

Earlier, in a meeting with Rajnath Singh, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that yesterday you had said that we will tell you about the Deputy Speaker. But you have not told us yet. Actually, Rajnath Singh had called KC Venugopal to sign the Speaker’s nomination paper. DMK leader TR Balu had also come to meet Rajnath.

On Tuesday morning, the opposition made it clear that it will field its own candidate for the speaker’s post. The name of Congress leader K Suresh was finalized. K Suresh is an eight-time MP. Shortly after the name was finalized, K Suresh also filed his nomination papers. The opposition is preparing for a show of strength. It has also started the exercise of bringing independent MPs to its side. The opposition has 237 MPs. This includes the support of three independents.

K Suresh’s nomination papers have been signed by India Block allies DMK, Shiv Sena (Uddhav), Sharad Pawar (NCP) and other major parties. TMC has not signed yet. They are waiting for Mamata Banerjee’s approval.
Earlier, Om Birla filed his nomination on behalf of NDA. During this time, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and JP Nadda along with all the NDA leaders reached the Lok Sabha Secretary General’s room and got the nomination done. The ruling party has an absolute majority. NDA has the support of 292 MPs.

For now, there will be an election for the Lok Sabha Speaker. After 72 years, the election for the Lok Sabha Speaker is going to be held. Voting will take place on Wednesday at 11 am. The result will be declared after that. Till now, there has been a consensus regarding the Speaker. A leader from the opposition party has been elected as the Deputy Speaker.