Lok Sabha Speaker Election: Mamata's TMC To Back INDIA Bloc's Pick K Suresh

The election for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker comes after negotiations between the government and the Opposition to elect a speaker failed.

Lok Sabha Speaker Election: The Mamata Banerjee led-Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday decided to extend its support to INDIA bloc candidate and Congress MP K Suresh in the election for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker. The Congress leader will be up against NDA candidate Om Birla. 

The election comes after negotiations between the government and the Opposition to elect a speaker failed. Om Birla, who was the speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha, has again been fielded by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as a candidate. 

Earlier in the day, K Suresh said that the INDIA bloc is still ready to withdraw its candidature. The Congress MP said that according to him, the ruling NDA is not going to make any offers before the election because they sought support for the Speaker post and were willing to hold discussions for the deputy Speaker post later. 

The INDIA bloc on Tuesday nominated Suresh, who has been elected an MP for the 8th time. This will be the third time in the history of India that the election for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker will be held.

On the election of the Speaker for the Lower House, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had said on Monday that the entire Opposition would support the Speaker but the convention is that the Deputy Speaker post should be given to the opposition. 

"Today it is written in the newspaper that PM Modi has said that the Opposition should cooperate with the Govt constructively. Rajnath Singh called Mallikarjun Kharge and he asked him to extend support to the Speaker. The entire Opposition said that we would support the Speaker but the convention is that the Deputy Speaker post should be given to the opposition. Rajnath Singh said that he would call back Mallikarjun Kharge but he has not done that yet...PM Modi is asking for cooperation from Opposition but our leader is getting insulted," Rahul Gandhi said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha began on Monday, which witnessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi take oath as the Member of Parliament for the third time in a row. The 18th Lok Sabha session was held on Monday after the Lok Sabha polls concluded on June 4.

After PM Modi, the Council of Ministers were administered oath by pro tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab, who was appointed by President Droupadi Murmu. Thereafter, the newly elected MPs were sworn in as members of the Lower House in the alphabetical order of the names of the state, starting from Assam.