Opposition may field SP's Faizabad MP for dy Speaker contest
Opposition may field SP's Faizabad MP for dy Speaker contest
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Congress are exploring the option of projecting SP's Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad as INDIA bloc's deputy Speaker candidate. Prasad (78) is a Dalit who won the unreserved seat that covers Ayodhya. This comes amid reports that Congress was keen to have K Suresh - an eight-time MP from Kerala - as opposition bloc's deputy speaker pick.
TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav and Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi have already discussed this and are likely to take it up with other allies, said sources. The sources added the nomination of Prasad was an idea of West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who conveyed it to nephew Abhishek.
According to sources, the three INDIA bloc senior partners seemed to agree that Prasad would be an "out-of-the-box" candidate and his nomination would carry "strong symbolism" as he won the high-stakes contest by over 50,000 votes.
While conferring with Rahul and Akhilesh, Abhishek suggested that choosing INDIA bloc's deputy Speaker pick should "send out a strong message", said sources. He focused on symbolism since numbers don't stack up for INDIA bloc if there is a contest.
A Trinamool MP said: "INDIA bloc will contest for the deputy Speaker's post. In the remaining three days of this session... even later... we will collectively demand the post. A consensus is being worked out on possible nominees."
Article 93 of the Constitution says the Lok Sabha "shall choose two of its members as Speaker and deputy Speaker". The 17th LS was the first since Independence which didn't have a deputy Speaker.
Asked about the situation in which NDA didn't accept the opposition's proposal of a deputy speaker election, the TMC MP added: "The 17th Lok Sabha and the 18th Lok Sabha are very different. There's an NDA govt now, not a BJP govt. We will continue to aggressively push for the election in this session and all following sessions."
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