Om Birla vs K Suresh for Speaker, government-opposition consensus fails
In a first in the history of Independent India, Om Birla and K Suresh filed their nominations on Wednesday, June 26, as candidates for the Lok Sabha Speaker election, representing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and INDIA bloc, respectively.
In previous elections, the Lok Sabha Speaker was typically chosen through consensus between the ruling party and the Opposition.
However, this tradition was disrupted this year when the INDIA bloc insisted on securing the deputy Speaker post in exchange for supporting the NDA candidate.
According to the reports, over 10 nominations were filed in support of Om Birla’s candidature, including from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and JP Nadda, and BJP allies like TDP, JD(U), JD(S) and LJP (R). Three nominations were filed supporting Dalit leader and Congress leader K Suresh.