The 18th Lok Sabha session, which began on Monday, is set to witness a rare election for the post of Speaker between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Om Birla and Congress’ K Suresh. Usually, the person for the post is chosen by a consensus between the ruling and opposition parties. However, this is the first time since the Emergency that the election for the Lok Sabha Speaker will take place.
Birla and Suresh broke the decades-old convention and filed their nominations for the speaker’s election on Tuesday after the Opposition INDIA bloc refused to back down on its demand for the Deputy Speaker’s post amid no proper response from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Opposition had agreed to support the government-backed candidate, Om Birla, under the condition that the deputy Speaker must be a member of the INDIA bloc.
By convention, if the ruling party gets the Speaker’s post, then the Deputy Speaker is chosen from the Opposition. The Congress is adamant about contesting for the post after gaining strength in the Lok Sabha after the election results.
The INDIA bloc won 233 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, while the BJP-led NDA won 293 seats to retain power for the third consecutive term. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with 16 seats and Janata Dal (United) with 12 seats are the biggest allies of the BJP, which won 240 seats.
Here are the top developments in this rare poll.
- The opposition’s last-minute decision to go for a rare contest came after senior BJP leaders did not agree to its precondition that the INDIA bloc must be offered the post of Deputy Speaker in lieu of supporting Birla, who is the clear favourites in case of an election.
- A brief interaction involving Congress leader KC Venugopal and DMK’s TR Baalu from the opposition side and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and J P Nadda, who is also the BJP president, at Singh’s office in Parliament to evolve a consensus ended in acrimony as both sides stuck to their position.
- Both opposition leaders walked out, with Venugopal accusing the government of not following the “convention” of an opposition candidate for the Deputy Speaker’s position and announcing the decision to field a candidate against Birla.
- Union ministers Piyush Goyal of the BJP and Lalan Singh of the JD(U) accused the opposition of resorting to pressure politics and putting forth preconditions despite senior ministers’ assurance that its demand will be considered when the time to pick the Deputy Speaker comes.
- “There can be no pressure politics,” Union minister and JD(U) leader Lalan Singh told reporters, while Goyal said democracy cannot be run on preconditions.
- The scheduled day for picking the Speaker is Wednesday and if an election occurs, it will be only the third time in Lok Sabha’s history, official sources said.
- If a division of votes takes place in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, then paper slips will be used as the electronic system is not operational yet in the new Lok Sabha where members are still in the process of being allocated their seats.
- Seasoned BJP leader Rajnath Singh had taken the lead in reaching out to opposition parties over the issue as Birla emerged as the NDA’s consensus choice and met its senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- If Birla, the BJP MP from Kota, is elected, it will be fifth time that a Speaker would serve beyond the tenure of one Lok Sabha. Though Congress leader Balram Jakhar is the only presiding officer to have served two complete terms extending seventh and eighth Lok Sabha.
- A third-term MP, Birla is also a three-term former Rajasthan MLA and has risen through the ranks in the BJP. Suresh, his rival for the Speaker’s post, is a eighth-term MP from Kerala and hails from a Dalit community.
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