Former Lok Sabha Secretary General PD Thankappan Acharya on Speaker contesting the election, said, “This happens very rarely”

New Delhi: The ruling NDA and opposition party India Bloc on Wednesday remained at loggerheads over the post of Speaker in Parliament. Meanwhile, former Lok Sabha Secretary General PD Thankappan Acharya said that elections for the crucial post have been held before as well, though on very few occasions. Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, Acharya said, “Elections have always been held, elections are a must, but the contest has been very seldom. But it has happened.” Elections for the post of Speaker have been held at least twice in India’s parliamentary history. The first instance was in 1952, when GV Malvankar of the Congress contested against CPI candidate Shankar Shantaram More. The second instance was in 1976, when BR Bhagat of the Congress contested against Jansangh’s Jagannathrao Joshi and was supported by the Congress-O. The former Secretary General said that though the person to be appointed Speaker is decided after an agreement between the ruling party and the Opposition, it does not work out every time and elections may be held. “Normally, there is some consensus between the ruling party and the opposition. They try to build a consensus on the choice of the Speaker. But it does not work every time. So, sometimes elections are held. In the past, there were elections. I don’t remember when, but there were definitely elections. In any case, the Speaker must be elected by the House. That is what Article 93 says,” Acharya said. Explaining how the Speaker is elected, the former general secretary said, “In the case of the election of the Speaker, it is through a motion to be moved in the House. In this particular case (18th Lok Sabha), there will be two motions and the pro tem Speaker will accept the motions and both will be moved in the House tomorrow. The first motion that will be taken up will be from the government’s side…my motion will also be taken up and put to vote like any other motion in the House…it will have both ‘ayes’ and ‘noes’.” Elaborating on the voting process, Acharya said, “If nobody challenges it, the (pro tem) speaker will announce that the House has elected so and so. If somebody challenges it, then voting will take place. And then you will know how many people voted against it and how many voted for it. That’s the end of the matter. There will be absolutely no second motion. The decision of the House is present in the first motion itself. There will be no second motion in favour of Mr Suresh. This is the process of voting in the House.” The former general secretary also remarked that though there has been a tradition of giving the post of Deputy Chairman to the opposition, there is no rule specifically mentioning it. “The tradition has been that the opposition is given the post (of deputy speaker), but there is no rule or anything about this. This tradition can be respected or followed, or it can be broken and a new tradition can be started. It depends on the government. The majority government will decide. But the tradition is this: generally, the government goes by it, they respect the tradition and someone from the opposition becomes the deputy speaker. I don’t know what is going to happen this time,” Acharya said.

The efforts of the BJP top leadership to build a consensus on the speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha failed when the Indian Bloc decided to nominate 8-time MP K Suresh for the post. His nomination came after BJP’s Kota MP Om Birla filed his nomination for the same post. Birla has previously served as the speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha. Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he has informed Rajnath Singh that the opposition is ready to support the NDA’s chairman candidate, provided the deputy chairman post is given to the opposition. (ANI)
The former general secretary also remarked that though there has been a tradition of giving the deputy chairman post to the opposition, there is no rule specifically mentioning it. “The tradition has been that the opposition is given the post (deputy chairman), but there is no rule or anything about this. This tradition can be respected or followed, or it can be broken and a new tradition can be started. It depends on the government. The majority government will decide. But the tradition is this: generally, the government goes by it, they respect the tradition and someone from the opposition becomes the deputy chairman. I don’t know what is going to happen this time,” Acharya said. Efforts by the BJP top leadership to build a consensus on the Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha failed after the Indian Bloc decided to nominate 8-time MP K Suresh for the post. His nomination came after BJP’s Kota MP Om Birla filed his nomination for the same post. Birla has earlier served as Speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha. Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he has informed Rajnath Singh that the opposition is ready to support the NDA’s Speaker candidate provided the Deputy Speaker post is given to the opposition. (ANI)