NDA’s Om Birla faces contest for LS Speaker as Oppn nominates K Suresh

New Delhi: The ruling BJP-led NDA on Tuesday maintained its streak of continuity in its third term by fielding previous Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for the crucial parliamentary position again, but its bid for a consensus was thwarted by the opposition which forced an election by nominating Kodikunnil Suresh as its candidate.

The opposition’s last-minute decision to go for a rare contest came after senior BJP leaders did not agree to its precondition that the INDIA bloc must be offered the post of Deputy Speaker in lieu of supporting Birla, who is the clear favourites in case of an election.

A brief interaction involving Congress leader K C Venugopal and DMK’s TR Baalu from the opposition side and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and JP Nadda, who is also the BJP president, at Singh’s office in Parliament to evolve a consensus ended in acrimony as both sides stuck to their position.

Both opposition leaders walked out, with Venugopal accusing the government of not following the “convention” of an opposition candidate for the Deputy Speaker’s position and announcing the decision to field a candidate against Birla. Union ministers Piyush Goyal of the BJP and Lalan Singh of the JD(U) accused the opposition of resorting to pressure politics and putting forth preconditions despite senior ministers’ assurance that its demand will be considered when the time to pick the Deputy Speaker comes.

“There can be no pressure politics,” Union minister and JD(U) leader Lalan Singh told reporters, while Goyal said democracy cannot be run on preconditions. The scheduled day for picking the Speaker is Wednesday and if an election occurs, it will be only the third time in Lok Sabha’s history, official sources said. With the NDA having 293 MPs in its kitty and the INDIA bloc 233, numbers clearly favour Birla in Lok Sabha, which currently has 542 members after Rahul Gandhi resigned from one of the two seats he was elected from. At least three independent members also support the opposition. BJP sources claimed that the Congress has been the main aggressor on the issue and some other INDIA bloc members are not very keen on a contest. If Birla, the BJP MP from Kota, is elected, it will be fifth time that a Speaker would serve beyond the tenure of one

Lok Sabha. Though Congress leader Balram Jakhar is the only presiding officer to have served two complete terms extending seventh and eighth Lok Sabha. A third-term MP, Birla is also a three-term former Rajasthan MLA and has risen through the ranks in the BJP. Suresh, his rival for the Speaker’s post, is a eighth-term MP from Kerala and hails from a Dalit community.

If a division of votes takes place in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, then paper slips will be used as the electronic system is not operational yet in the new Lok Sabha where members are still in the process of being allocated their seats. Seasoned BJP leader Rajnath Singh had taken the lead in reaching out to opposition parties over the issue as Birla emerged as the NDA’s consensus choice and met its senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Suresh said it is not about winning or losing, but about a convention that Speaker will be of ruling party and deputy speaker from the opposition.