V Sasi elected deputy speaker of Kerala Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: CPI member V. Sasi was elected as the deputy speaker of the 14th Kerala Assembly on Wednesday. While Mr Sasi secured 90 of the 136 votes polled, his opponent Congress member I. C. Balakrishnan secured 45 votes.

While BJP's lone legislator O. Rajagopal was away in his ancestral Palakkad village, independent P. C. George made his ballot invalid by writing his demand for NOTA (none of the above) option on it. Out of the 141 legislators, including the nominated Anglo-Indian member John Fernandez, speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan abstained from voting.

Though speakers are entitled to vote in deputy speaker elections, generally they would not exercise that option to maintain neutrality.

Mr Sasi, 66, representing Chirayinkeezhu for the second consecutive term, has been in public service for over three decades. He also held various posts including that of chairperson and managing director of various public sector undertakings. A product of College of Engineering Trivandrum, he was also the private secretary to former SC/ST welfare minister P. K. Raghavan in the E. K. Nayanar ministry.

Though the LDF has 91 members, K. Krishnankutty of Janata Dal (S) was absent. Hence Mr Sasi got only 90 votes. On the UDF side, though there were 47 MLAs, C. Mammootty of IUML and Anoop Jacob of Kerala Congress (J) were not present. So Balakrishnan secured only 45 votes.

P. C. George wrote 'Where is NOTA?' beside his name and signed on the ballot paper. O. Rajagopal, who voted for Sreeramakrishnan for the speaker, told a section of media that he had to participate in a family ceremony.

Mr Rajagopal had earlier justified his decision to vote for Sreeramakrishnan citing that he got attracted by his name as it contained the names of Lord Rama and Krishna. Hence there were speculations that he might prefer Balakrishnan this time.