Loksabha Speaker 2024: Om Birla was re-elected as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Congress had made it clear on Tuesday that it would oppose the ruling party’s candidate. For this, it had worked hard and practiced a lot in the India Alliance.
There was also news that Mamta Banerjee would not support Congress if a candidate was fielded against Om Birla. Later Rahul Gandhi called her and convinced her. So what happened after the House started today that there was no division of votes for the post of Speaker. Congress’s condition was that according to parliamentary tradition, the ruling party should give the post of Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha to India Alliance. Only then will they agree to the post of Speaker and the election will be unopposed.
After the House started today, many proposals were made by the ruling coalition in favour of Birla. The leaders supported it. The presiding chairman conducted a voice vote on this proposal and Om Birla was declared the winner. Actually, there was a well thought out strategy of the Congress behind this. It is clear that the number of India alliance is less than the ruling NDA. Still, the Congress had taken a tough stand on this since Tuesday. The leaders of the ruling party including the Union Ministers were constantly in touch with the Congress on this issue. But the Congress high command was not ready to soften its tough stand.
Actually, Congress wanted to send a message on this issue that it will not back down from its tough stand. It will not give any concession to the government in parliamentary work in future also. With this in mind, it fielded its own candidate. But the parliamentary tradition is that if any proposal of the government is voted on by voice vote, the presiding speaker always approves it.
Tags: india news, Speaker of Lok Sabha, Om Birla, Parliament session, PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 26, 2024, 12:12 IST