Opposition's move to nominate Congress leader K Suresh for Lok Sabha Speaker post after BJP-led NDA's consensus candidate Om Birla filed nomination paved way for a historic election to the top Parliamentary post on Tuesday.
While Om Birla's way initially seemed clear to take charge of the Lok Sabha speaker post after Opposition leaders said they were willing to back him, their condition of deputy speaker post's allotment to a member of the INDIA bloc, in lines with parliamentary tradition, were allegedly not agreed upon, prompting them to field their candidate for the top post.
BJP won 240 seats and the Congress 99 in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections 2024. While BJP was unable to hit the majority mark of 272 alone, its allies took the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by it to a tally of 293, a comfortable but reduced majority as compared to 2019.
The Congress, which is part of the opposition INDIA bloc, won 99 seats compared to 52 it won in 2019. Other parties of INDIA bloc took the Opposition alliance's Lok Sabha election tally to 232.
How Is Lok Sabha Speaker, Deputy Speaker Elected
As per Article 93 of the Constitution, the Lok Sabha shall, as soon as may be, choose two members to be speaker and deputy speaker so often as the offices become vacant. However, it does not provide a specific time frame.
The Speaker is elected by a simple majority, meaning that the candidate who receives more than half of the votes from the members present in the house becomes the Speaker.
BJP leader B Mahtab took oath as 'speaker pro-tem' of the newly-constituted 18th Lok Sabha on Monday, June 24. A seven-time MP, Mahtab, along with a panel of chairpersons is tasked with running the proceedings of the Lok Sabha on Monday and Tuesday when winning candidates will take oath as members of the 18th Lok Sabha.
Lok Sabha Speaker Elected Without Contest Since Independence, Until Now
The Lok Sabha Speaker is a post for which names have been chosen by consensus between both the ruling and opposition parties since Independence. This means that Opposition INDIA bloc nomination of Congress leader K Suresh for the post has triggered an election for the Speaker of the Lok Sabha for the first time in the history of Independent India even though Om Birla is likely to win given the BJP-led alliance's majority.
The last contest for the post of the Lok Speaker was held on January 24, 1946 when Congress leader GV Mavalankar won the election by defeating Cowasjee Jehangir by a margin of just three votes. Mavalankar polled 66 votes against 63 by Jehangir, as per information cited in a LiveMint report.
Mavalankar was subsequently appointed as the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly and the Provisional Parliament that came into being after the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.
