For the first time in Lok Sabha, there will be an election for the Speaker’s post as the government and the opposition failed to reach a consensus, with former Speaker Om Birla and K Suresh of the Congress filing their nominations.
So far, there has been a tradition to elect the Lok Sabha Speaker through consensus between the ruling party and the Opposition. However, this tradition has been disrupted this year when the Congress-led INDIA bloc insisted on securing the Deputy Speaker’s post in exchange for supporting the NDA candidate for Speakership.
Both, the ruling BJP as well as the main Opposition Congress Party, have issued three-line whips to their members to be present in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday from 11 am till the end of the proceedings, which include the Speaker’s election, and support the party stand.
Senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal said there was no precedent to suggest that the deputy speaker’s post must go to the Opposition, and the Opposition was needlessly choosing a showdown.
He said the Opposition insisted that first the name of the Deputy Speaker should be decided “and only then we will support the Speaker candidate. We condemn such politics.” He said a good tradition would have been to choose the Speaker unanimously. The Speaker does not belong to any party or opposition; he belongs to the entire House.
Similarly, he said, the Deputy Speaker also does not belong to any party or group; he belongs to the entire House and hence there should be consent of the House. Such conditions that only a particular person or from a particular party should be the Deputy Speaker, do not fit into any tradition of the Lok Sabha, he said.
In a twist to the INDIA position, Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee said his party was not consulted on the Opposition’s decision to field Congress MP K Suresh as the INDIA bloc’s joint nominee for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker.
As Mr Suresh filed his nomination for the June 26 election of Speaker, the Trinamul Congress was not among the INDIA bloc parties that signed his paper. Mr Banerjee said that party chief Mamata Banerjee will decide over the issue of supporting Congress’ K Suresh as INDIA bloc’s nominee for Speaker.
Efforts by the BJP’s top leadership to broker a consensus on the position of the Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha came to naught when the INDIA bloc decided to field eight-time MP K Suresh for the post. His nomination followed the filing of a nomination by the BJP’s Kota MP Om Birla for the post. Mr Birla was the speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha as well.
This will be the first time that elections will be held for the Speaker of the Lower House. Since independence, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Speaker have been elected by consensus between the ruling party and the opposition. There was however no Deputy Speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha.
Senior BJP leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had reached out to the Opposition leaders on behalf of the government in a bid to build a consensus. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that they had conveyed to Mr Rajnath Singh that the opposition was ready to extend support to NDA’s Speaker candidate, but the post of Deputy Speaker should be given to the Opposition.
On 27 June, President Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to address a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament. The NDA, which has 293 MPs in the 543-member Lok Sabha, enjoys a clear majority, with the opposition INDIA bloc having 234 MPs.