Election For 18th Lok Sabha Speaker To Be Held Today

The Speaker for the 18th Lok Sabha will be chosen today. Senior BJP MP Om Birla, who was also the Speaker in the last Lok Sabha, is the NDA nominee for the post this time as well. On the other hand, the Opposition INDIA bloc has fielded Congress MP K Suresh for the post. Both candidates filed their nominations for the Speaker’s post yesterday, and the election is scheduled to be held today.

Despite hectic parleys, the government and Opposition failed to reach a consensus for the post. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Lok Sabha Speaker should be elected unanimously and unopposed. He noted that no election has been held for the post of Speaker since independence, and the government talked to the floor leaders of the opposition parties to build consensus on the name of the Lok Sabha Speaker. He said the Congress-led opposition came up with conditions and demanded the Deputy



Speaker post. Mr. Rijiju stated that consensus should not be conditional and that they are ready to have a separate decision on the selection of the Deputy Speaker. He also appealed to the opposition bloc to reconsider their decision.

Talking to the media outside Parliament yesterday, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, and J P Nadda met with Congress leader KC Venugopal and DMK MP TR Baalu to build consensus on the selection of Lok Sabha Speaker. Mr. Goyal said they were informed that the Deputy Speaker issue will be dealt with at the time of its election.

Talking to the media outside Parliament, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that the Opposition is ready to extend support to the NDA nominee for the Speaker post provided that the Deputy Speaker post is given to the opposition.