NEW DELHI: After contesting the Speaker election, the Indian Opposition is now looking to pressure Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to announce a date for elections to the Deputy Speaker post, which has been vacant for five years in the last Lok Sabha.
Sources said informal talks have begun among India’s major political parties to put pressure on the government to set a date for the speaker and allocate the post to an opposition party.
As a first step, the people said, they plan to submit a “joint letter” to the speaker urging him to immediately begin the process of selecting a vice-speaker, a position provided for in the constitution.
According to Article 93 of the Constitution, “The House of the People shall as soon as possible elect two members to be its Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and in case the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker becomes vacant, the House shall elect another member to be Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be.”
In the last House of Representatives, no deputy speaker was elected, even though the opposition regularly nominated one.
An analysis of the election of Deputy Speakers shows that the biggest gap in the election of Deputy Speakers was in the 12th Lok Sabha elections, where Prime Minister Syed took office 270 days after being elected Speaker. In the 11th Lok Sabha elections, Suraj Bhan was elected Deputy Speaker within 52 days.
Syed was again elected Deputy Speaker in the 13th Lok Sabha, just seven days after being elected Speaker, the same number of days as Charanjit Singh Atwal was elected Deputy Speaker in the 14th Lok Sabha and Kalia Munda was elected Deputy Speaker in the 15th Lok Sabha. In 2014, M. Thambi Durai was elected after 71 days.
The Indian Union decided to field Kodikunnil Suresh as its Speaker candidate after the government refused to promise to give the post of Deputy Speaker to the Opposition. The first Indian Lok Sabha also held an election for Speaker after the government refused to accede to the Opposition’s demand for the post of Deputy Speaker.
“Everyone should understand that the Speaker cannot be forgiven for what he has done in the last five years. We will pressurise the Speaker to fix a date for the elections. Not having a Deputy Speaker is unconstitutional,” a senior Indian Union leader said.
Published June 26, 2024 12:49 IST
