INDIA bloc fields K Suresh against NDA’s Om Birla for Lok Sabha Speaker post
The INDIA alliance decided to field its own candidate after the BJP refused to confirm that the Deputy Speaker would be from the Opposition
INDIA bloc on Tuesday (June 25) fielded Congress MP K Suresh for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker against NDA candidate Om Birla after both the sides failed to reach a consensus on the nomination.
There will therefore be an election for the top parliamentary post, probably for the first time since 1946.
Suresh’s nomination was announced by Opposition MP NK Premachandran.
Kodikunnil Suresh, Congress MP from Mavelikara constituency in Kerala, is the senior-most MP in the present Lok Sabha. A member of the Dalit community, the eight-time MP has been described as "brilliant" by the BJP's Kerala state chief K Surendran.
Birla, who won from Kota, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the morning, amid indications that he will again be the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s candidate for the Lok Sabha speaker's post.
INDIA bloc’s condition before NDA
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said the Congress would support a unanimous election of Birla to the speaker’s post if the BJP agrees to appoint the Opposition candidate to the deputy speaker’s post.
Rahul said Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had called Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge requesting for the Congress’s support on the same.
Rahul said Singh told Kharge that he would call him back in this regard but hadn’t done so yet. He said that this was an “insult” of the Congress president.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul said, “PM says the Opposition should be cooperative. The convention is that the Deputy Speaker is from the Opposition; we had done it during UPA too. The PM says one thing but does another; the country doesn’t trust the PM’s words anymore.”
By retaining the Kota seat in Rajasthan, Birla has become the first presiding officer to be re-elected to the Lower House in the last 20 years.
