The Lok Sabha elected Om Birla as Speaker in a voice vote on Wednesday, a day after the opposition nominated Congress leader K Suresh to the top parliamentary seat, triggering a historic election. Om Birla, the consensus candidate of the BJP-led NDA, was elected Speaker after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal was approved in a vote. Speaker B Mahtab announced after the opposition failed to demand a vote on the motion.
The opposition’s bid to nominate Congressman K Suresh as Speaker of the Lok Sabha after BJP-led NDA’s consensus candidate Om Birla withdrew his candidature on Tuesday paved the way for a historic election to the top seat in Parliament.
While Om Birla’s path to the post of Lok Sabha Speaker initially seemed clear after opposition leaders announced their willingness to support him, their terms for the Deputy Speaker were divided due to tradition in the House, which one member of the Chamber reportedly disagreed. The INDIA bloc urged them to nominate for the top post.
The 18th Lok Sabha Session of Parliament
When Om Birla was elected as Speaker of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and leaders Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav greeted him with a plea to allow the opposition to be heard, a row erupted over Birla reading out a resolution condemning the emergency.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla called then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s decision to stand as an attack on the constitution, triggering a wave of slogan-raising opposition protests in Parliament. The BJP later also organized a rally because of the state of emergency.
PM Modi later posted on X that the speaker had condemned the Emergency.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday elected Om Birla as Speaker by voice vote after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal was accepted by voice vote. The opposition did not demand a vote on the proposal.
In the Speaker of Lok Sabha election, the opposition opposed Congressman K Suresh against the consensus candidate of NDA Om Birla, who will win because of the strength of the ruling alliance.’ This is Om Birla’s direct tenure as Lok Sabha Speaker.
The Speaker of the Lok Sabha is a post whose names have been unanimously chosen by both the ruling party and the opposition party since independence. This means that the appointment of K Suresh, the leader of the opposition INDIA Bloc Congress, triggered the Lok Sabha Speaker election for the first time in the history of independent India, although Om Birla was expected to win due to the victory of the BJP led an alliance.
According to Article 93 of the Constitution, the Sabha elects two members as soon as possible as Speaker and Deputy Speaker as often as vacancies occur. However, it does not give a specific deadline. The speaker is elected by a simple majority, i.e. the candidate who receives more than half of the votes of the members present in the house becomes the president.
BJP won 240 seats and Congress won 99 seats in the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Although the BJP could not reach the 272 majority mark on its own, its allies defeated the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). it is 293, a comfortable but smaller majority compared to 2019, but enough to make it a Lok Sabha speaker candidate. The Congress, which is part of the INDIA bloc of the opposition party, won 99 seats compared to 52 seats in 2019. Other INDIA Bloc parties increased the Lok Sabha election result of the opposition alliance to 232.
The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha
The first day of the 18th Lok Sabha began on a stormy note on Monday amid a war of words between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge for the imposition of Emergency in 1975 and the severe. asking to “protect democracy”. In the opening session, a total of 262 newly elected members of parliament, including the prime minister, were sworn in, and the opposition organized a protest march in the parliament building. Members of parliament from the INDIA bloc raised slogans of “saving democracy” and exhibited copies of the constitution, The other new MPs were sworn in on Tuesday.
