New Delhi: For the first time since independence, the Lok Sabha is set to see an election for the position of Speaker of the house. The election was forced after consensus evaded the government, which refused to back down on conceding the position of Deputy Speaker to the opposition.
Following a break down in negotiations, the INDIA bloc fielded 8 term MP K Suresh as its candidate for the speaker's position. Suresh will face Om Birla, the BJP MP from Kota, and the speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha. The elections for the post will be held on June 26.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav blamed the BJP for forcing the contest by not yielding to the opposition demand of a deputy speaker.
"Everything will be in front of us soon. The only demand of the opposition was that the deputy speaker should have been from the opposition," he said.
The government has in turn accused the opposition of indulging in conditional politics and not maintaining the dignity of the house by forcing an election for the speaker's post.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, "We had a conversation with all the floor leaders of the opposition regarding the post of the Speaker. The Speaker is not for a party, it is for the functioning of the House. The Speaker is elected unanimously. It is disheartening that Congress has nominated its candidate for Speaker. No election has ever taken place for the post of Speaker. Congress put this condition in place: if they get the post of Deputy Speaker, they will support our candidate for the Speaker's post. This give and take of posts of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker is not right."
Union Civil Aviation Minister and TDP leader Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said, "It is not a good thing to keep conditions. Democracy does not work on conditions. And as far as the Speaker election is concerned, whatever should have been done by the NDA, they all did it. Specially Rajnath Singh ji, being a senior leader, reached out to everyone. He also reached out to the opposition and told them that we are proposing Om Birla ji's name, so your help is needed in this. So when it was their turn to help, they put up a condition that we would do it only if you gave us this (the Deputy Speaker post). There was never a convention to support the speaker on a conditional basis...They want to do politics in this too."
The opposition says it is still willing to make the election of the speaker unanimous if the government yields to their demand. With the government not showing any intent od doing so, the election to the position will take place on June 26. On June 27, the President will address both houses of Parliament. With 290 MPs the NDA has the numbers to ensure the election of OM Birla as speaker.
