New Delhi: With Narendra Modi-led NDA giving primacy to experience and continuity, Om Birla on Tuesday filed nomination for Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha in a bid to return to the post he served from 2019 to 2024.
In the absence of a consensus, INDIA bloc, which had earlier decided to support NDA’s choice if the Deputy Speaker post is given to the Opposition bloc, has fielded eight-time Kerala MP K Suresh for the post.
This has set the stage for the contest for the post of Speaker, who is elected by a simple majority of MPs voting, in almost five decades. Om Birla will need 271 votes, half of 542 (Wayanad seat vacant), to win the election. The NDA has 293 members in the Lok Sabha while the opposition has 233.
The election is slated for 11 am on Wednesday.
According to Lok Sabha Secretariat, 1952 saw the first such contest between GV Mavalankar and Shankar Shantaram. Mavalankar won with 394 votes whereas Shantaram got 55. The second one happened in 1976 when Baliram Bhagat won, securing 344 votes vs Jagannath Rao who got 58.
Earlier speaking to mediapersons, Rahul Gandhi said: “We have said to Rajnath Singh that we will support their Speaker (candidate) but the convention is that the post of Deputy Speaker to be given to opposition….”
The government had deployed Singh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to build a consensus on the Lok Sabha Speaker candidate after the opposition INDIA bloc said it was considering its options. However, it was learnt that Congress and DMK representatives walked out of a meeting called by Singh, ruling out a consensual candidate for the post.
The opposition reportedly wanted a decision on the post of Deputy Speaker immediately despite Rajnath Singh requesting that everyone should sit together and discuss the issue when the time comes for the selection, the PTI reported.
BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal slammed the Congress party after the latter fielded K Suresh against NDA’s nominee. “They said first decide the name for Deputy Speaker then we will support the Speaker candidate. We condemn such politics. Democracy cannot be run on conditions,” he asserted, adding that it would have been better to have an consensus candidate.
While all NDA partners have signed the nomination papers of Om Birla, all major INDIA bloc members have signed the nomination papers of K Suresh except TMC.