First Face-off After Lok Sabha Polls, NDA and INDIA to Battle It Out For The Post Of Speaker On Wednesday

The first major face-off after the Lok Sabha elections is slated to happen on Wednesday over the post of Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha as BJP-led NDA nominates OM Birla and contested by Congress’ Kodikunnil Suresh, backed by the INDIA alliance bloc.

While Om Birla is a three-time MP from Kota Rajasthan, K Suresh is an eight-time parliamentarian from Kerala’s Mavelikara. The post of speaker election depends on a simple majority vote from the elected MPs. While BJP is on its own at 240, with alliance members like Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, NDA has 293 seats in Lok Sabha, whereas the INDIA alliance has 234 MPs in the bloc. This will be the first time there will be a fight over the post of the speaker in 1952.

BJP wanted consensus over OM Birla’s election and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Sigh had reached out to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharga seeking support. The opposition had assured support on condition the deputy speaker post was given to a member from the INDIA bloc. The deputy speaker post has been lying vacant since 2019- the second term of PM Modi. “The convention is the deputy speaker should be given to the opposition. Rajnath Singh said he will get back to Kharge ji. But he hasn’t as yet. We have no problem with them selecting the speaker but the deputy speaker should be given to us. Modi talks of cooperation but does the exact opposite of that. That’s his character”, said Congress MP Rahul Gandhi soon before K Suresh was seen being accompanied by senior congress leaders to file his nomination papers.

The deadline to file the nomination was Tuesday noon and both NDA candidate OM Birla and INDIA candidate K Suresh have filed their nomination papers within time. Speaker’s election will happen on Wednesday.