Om Birla vs K Suresh: Govt, Opposition at Loggerheads For Speaker's Post in First Contest Since 1946

New Delhi: For the first time, the Lok Sabha Speaker's post will witness an election after the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led INDI alliance failed to reach a consensus. The NDA picked BJP MP Om Birla as its nominee, while the opposition fielded veteran Congress leader K Suresh. The contest for the Lok Sabha speaker post will take place at 11 AM on Wednesday. Both the candidates, Om Birla and K Suresh have filed their nomination papers for the Speaker post. 

Initially, the government and the opposition appeared to have reached a consensus on the Speaker post as the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a telephonic conversation with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The Congress chief agreed to support the government's pick for the Speaker post, however, demanded that the Deputy Speaker should be made from the Opposition alliance. 

The consensus collapsed after the government was ‘non-committal’ on giving the Deputy Speaker post to the opposition, claimed sources. 

Lok Sabha Speaker Election: Updates

1. NDA nominee for Speaker post of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament House, today.
2. NCP-SCP MP Supriya Sule was seen leaving the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi after attending the meeting of the Floor leaders of the INDIA alliance. 
3. BJP MP Tejaswi Surya said, "All efforts were made on the part of the NDA to arrive at a consensus but the opposition adopted a very confrontational attitude and instead of coming together to elect a speaker unanimously, they have chosen to put up a candidate...I hope Om Birla will emerge victorious and he will continue his work of upholding democracy..." (with ANI inputs) 
4. Ahead of the Speaker's elections in Parliament on Wednesday, the BJP issued a three-line-whip to its MPs to remain present in the House tomorrow. 
5. Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi told ANI, “Speaker is not a party post, Speaker represents the entire Parliament. Here the majority should be respected, in many states, the party, which is in power has a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker but they (the Opposition) want a decision should be taken on the Deputy Speaker beforehand. We say that a decision should be taken on the (post of) Speaker first. When the matter of Deputy Speaker will come up, then it will be decided after sitting together, there is no consensus on this ...” 
6. NCP-SCP Chief Sharad Pawar said, "I have not discussed it with anyone, it is always the practice that the ruling party gets the Speaker's post. The Deputy Speaker's post used to go to the opposition party but for the last 10 years after getting more seats in the Modi government, they have not accepted to give the Deputy Speaker's post to the opposition. We had a discussion with INDIA Alliance, in which I suggested that you people sitting in the government should make the Speaker's post an unopposed election, we agree that the Speaker's post should be unopposed. This all could be decided today, I will come to know once I go there (Delhi)..."
7. Rajasthan Minister Dr Kirodi Lal Meena told ANI, "The Lok Sabha speaker is always chosen by consensus...The speaker will be from the NDA alliance only but the new practice started by Congress and opposition parties is very unfortunate..." 
8. Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi said, “This government is completely anti-Dalit, that is why 8-time MP K Suresh, who is a Congress MP, was not made the Protem Speaker earlier, in a way the anti-Dalit face of the government was exposed, the work was not done as per the Constitution and after that now the opposition is saying that you give us the post of deputy speaker, then the government wants that the opposition should be run as per its wish.” He added, "Now you will not be able to suppress the opposition at your behest. We all are standing with a copy of the Constitution and Rahul ji's attitude, the attitude of the entire opposition is telling that you will have to work according to this book of the Constitution, you will not run the country as per your wish, the country will run as per the Constitution..."
9. Speaking about the post of Speaker, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said, "According to old traditions, elections were never contested for the post of Speaker as he was considered the guardian of the house...The ruling party used to take the post of Speaker and the post of Deputy Speaker was given to the Opposition...The ruling party never thinks of cooperation and the politics of confrontation started by BJP will continue"
10. On K Suresh's candidature for Lok Sabha Speaker, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee told ANI, “We were not contacted about this, there was no discussion. Unfortunately, this is a unilateral decision.” 
11. Congress leader Karti Chidambaram told ANI, "The convention was that the longest serving member would be the Pro-tem Speaker...The government refused to give that honour to senior member Kodikunnil Suresh...The convention also says that the position of Deputy Speaker will be given to the opposition bloc. But they ran a Parliament last time in the 17th Lok Sabha without a Deputy Speaker..."
12. Congress leader KC Venugopal on Tuesday said that the Opposition was ready to unanimously support the NDA candidate for the Lok Sabha Speaker position on the condition that it commit to giving the post of the Deputy Speaker to them.
13. “Mallikarjun Kharge is a senior leader and I respect him. I have had a conversation with him thrice since yesterday,” said Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh after consensus failed between the NDA and INDI alliance on the Lok Sabha speaker post. 
14. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “We had a conversation with all the floor leaders of the Opposition regarding the post of the Speaker. The Speaker is not for a party, it is for the functioning of the House. The Speaker is elected unanimously. It is disheartening that Congress has nominated its candidate for the Speaker. No election has ever taken place for the post of the Speaker. Congress put this condition that if they get the post of Deputy Speaker they will support our candidate for the Speaker's post. This give and take of posts of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker is not right...”
15. On the INDI bloc fielding K Suresh for the Lok Sabha post, Union Minister and BJP MP Piyush Goyal said, “In the morning, Rajnath Singh ji wanted to discuss with Mallikarjun Kharge ji but he was busy so he said that Venugopal ji would talk to you. But after speaking with TR Baalu and KC Venugopal ji, the old mentality that we will dictate the terms was shown again that the condition is that first decide who will be the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and then support will be given to the Speaker, we condemn this type of politics...”
16. On his nomination for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker, Congress MP K Suresh said, "I have filed my nomination. It is the party's decision, not mine. There is a convention in Lok Sabha where the Speaker will be from the ruling party and the Deputy Speaker will be from the opposition... Deputy Speaker is our right. But they are not ready to give it to us. Till 11:50 am we were waiting for a response from the government, but they did not give any response. That is why we filed the nomination."
17. On Lok Sabha Speaker post, Union Civil Aviation Minister and TDP leader Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said, “It is not a good thing to keep conditions. Democracy does not work on conditions. And as far as the Speaker election is concerned, whatever should have been done by the NDA, they all did it. Specially Rajnath Singh ji, being a senior leader, reached out to everyone. He also reached out to the opposition and told them that we are proposing Om Birla ji's name, so your help is needed in this. So when it was their turn to help, they put up a condition that we would do it only if you gave us this (Deputy Speaker post). There was never a convention to support the Speaker on a conditional basis...They want to do politics in this too...”