Know all about next Lok Sabha Speaker – Om Birla vs K Suresh

The Lok Sabha is all set to witness history in the making as ruling BJP-led NDA and Opposition INDIA bloc will be locking horns for the post of the Speaker, which is unprecedented.

The NDA has re-nominated BJP MP Om Birla as its candidate while the Opposition has decided to field veteran Congress leader and eight-time MP K Suresh for the key post.

Notably, the Lower House has never seen an election for the Speaker's post since India's independence. The last time such an election took place was in 1946.

A lack of consensus between the two sides led to the situation. Congress leader KC Venugopal and DMK's TR Baalu walked out of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's office, refusing to endorse NDA candidate Birla without being offered the deputy speaker's position.

The Federal takes you through the political journey of these two heavyweights one of whom will chair the proceedings in the 18th Lok Sabha.

Om Birla

BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Kota in Rajasthan, Om Birla started his political career at the age of 17 when he became president of the students association of the Government Senior Secondary School in Gumanpura in Kota in 1979.

He has steadily risen the ranks of the BJP’s ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over the years. He has been representing Kota since the 2014 general elections, prior to which he was a three-time MLA from Kota South assembly constituency.

Hailing from a third-generation RSS family, Birla worked with the BJP's youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), in his formative years. Over the years he gained proximity with Venkaiah Naidu, who was BJP president at the time, and Rajasthan BJP chief Ramdas Agrawal. He rose as a leader because of his ability to hold public demonstrations on issues concerning the common man. As a member of the BJP students' wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Birla lay down before the car of a Rajasthan minister while leading an agitation for jobs for locals in Kota's local industry in 1978.

Though he didn’t have any experience in dealing with the parliamentary affairs, the BJP chose him for the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker in 2019 probably because of his impressive record as an MP and as a debater in the Lok Sabha. He asked 671 questions and took part in 118 debates.

If elected, Birla will equal the record of Congress’ Balram Jhakhar who was elected as Speaker twice and was in the chair from 1980 to 1989. Interestingly, he is the only leader in the last 22 years who got re-elected to the Lok Sabha after serving five years as the Speaker.

GMC Balayogi died midway as Speaker in 2002, Manohar Joshi and Meira Kumar lost their elections while Sumitra Mahajan and Somnath Chatterjee retired.

K Suresh

Kodikunnil Suresh is an eight-term MP and one of the most senior Lok Sabha members. He currently represents Mavelikara Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala.

He is Congress Working Committee Member (Special Invitee) and was one of the frontrunners for the post of Congress’ Kerala unit chief in 2021. He is also the working president of Congress’ Kerala unit and the chief whip of Congress parliamentary party in Lok Sabha.

Suresh was first elected to Lok Sabha in 1989. He went on to win in the 1991, 1996 and 1999 Lok Sabha eections from Adoor constituency. However, he was defeated in the 1998 and 2004 general elections.

The Kerala High Court disqualified him in 2010 over allegations that his caste certificate was fake and that he was a Christian. The Supreme Court later reversed the verdict.

He also served as the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment in the second UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He has also served as an All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary.

In the recent elections, Suresh defeated CPI’s young turk CA Arun Kumar by 10,000 votes, among the lowest margins in the state, in a constituency where the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) holds all the seven assembly segments.