Himalaya Harbinger, Rudrapur Bureau
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will move the motion that Om Birla be chosen as the Speaker of Lok Sabha at 11 am when Parliament resumes today. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will second the motion as the post will see an election for the first time since 1976.
Om Birla was fielded as the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate for the Speaker for the second time, and will face the Opposition-led INDIA bloc’s K Suresh.
There was high drama on Tuesday after the Opposition initially agreed to support Om Birla and not field a candidate of its own, only to make a U-turn at the last minute. The move was a result of senior BJP leaders not agreeing to the Opposition’s precondition that they be offered the Deputy Speaker’s post.
Union Minister Amit Shah, JP Nadda and Rajnath Singh and INDIA bloc’s KC Venugopal from Congress and TR Baalu from DMK failed to solve the crisis after a brief interaction among them at Singh’s office saw both the NDA and the Opposition sticking to their positions.
Later, BJP’s Piyush Goyal and JD(U)’s Lalan Singh accused the Opposition of resorting to pressure politics
As many as 13 proposals will be put forth by the NDA in Lok Sabha in favour of Om Birla today, including those from women, tribal leaders, Dalit leaders.
Besides PM Modi and Rajnath Singh, who will move the first and second proposals, respectively, the focus would be on BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Amit Shah, and Nitin Garkari, among others. JD(U)’s Lalan Singh, Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Jitan Ram Manjhi, Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav, Janata Dal (Secular)’s HD Kumaraswamy and Apna Dal (Soneylal)’s Anupriya Patel will also be among NDA leaders to move proposals in favour of Om Birla.
Speaking to news agency ANI, K Suresh said that the “number is not an issue” but the sole problem is that the NDA broke the “convention”. “That is why, we are fighting (the election),” the Congress leader added.
OM BIRLA: A STRONG FAVOURITE
The INDIA bloc would face a tough battle in the Speaker’s election as they have 233 members in the House as opposed to NDA’s 293. To win, a side needs 271 of the 542 votes in Lok Sabha. Furthermore, seven MPs, including five from the INDIA bloc, are yet to take oath and do so after the Speaker’s election –
