NDA's Om Birla wins Rare Contest For Lok Sabha Speaker

 

The election also saw a moment of rare bonhomie as Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi walked up to Mr Birla to congratulated him and PM Modi.



Three-time BJP MP Om Birla was elected Lok Sabha Speaker for the second time in a row today after the NDA candidate won the election by a voice vote. The election also saw a moment of rare bonhomie between the treasury and Opposition benches as Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi walked up to Mr Birla to congratulated him and also shook hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As the House applauded Mr Birla on his election, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju escorted him to the Speaker's chair.

This was only the third election for the Lok Sabha Speaker after Independence. The voting took place after the Congress forced a contest and fielded its eight-time MP K Suresh as a challenger. The numbers, however, were clearly on Mr Birla's side. While the NDA candidate had the support of 297 MPs, the Opposition pick had 232.

The Lok Sabha Speaker is generally chosen with consensus. This time, the government had reached out to Opposition parties for their support. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had then responded that it will support the NDA candidate if the Deputy Speaker is appointed from the Opposition benches.

The government, however, made it clear that they are not considering a Deputy Speaker post, or the Opposition's claim to it, for now. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, "We appealed to them for support for the Speaker, but they said that they would support it but that they wanted the post of Deputy Speaker. We told them that the process of election for both posts is different. The process for choosing the Speaker is conducted before the Deputy Speaker. So it is not right to combine both."

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