pm-to-move-motion-to-elect-om-birla-as-ls-speaker

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.

The INDIA bloc decided to field K Suresh, a Dalit Congress leader and an eight-time MP, after a consensus between them and the NDA collapsed.

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 Bharatiya Janata Party 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 Janata Dal(United)’s Lalan Singh accused the Opposition of resorting to pressure politics.