There is no clarity regarding the post of Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker even as the Budget session is set to kick off on July 22, eight-time Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh said here on Wednesday.
“The Opposition has no information or any indication as to whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants a contest to the post or offer it to the Opposition - as Parliamentary convention dictates - or whether it would offer it to its own allies,” Mr. Suresh, who was at the centre of a row after being denied the post of pro-tem speaker despite being the senior most MP, said in a meet-the-press programme organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists Trust.
Mr. Suresh, who had subsequently contested for the Speaker’s post, losing out to BJP’s Om Birla, pointed out that the Opposition INDIA bloc had decided to contest as neither the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi was willing to give an assurance regarding the Deputy Speaker’s post.
“The Budget session will be held from July 22 to August 12. The Deputy Speaker should be elected at least in this session,” he said. It is a Parliamentary convention that a member of the Opposition assumes the role of Deputy Speaker. But the post had lain vacant throughout the 2019-2024 17th Lok Sabha.
Mr. Suresh said that the Left Democratic Front government had failed in putting “collective” pressure on New Delhi to secure the State’s demands. United Democratic Front (UDF) MPs have strongly raised the State’s requirements in the Parliament and before various Union Ministries without fail. But UDF MPs are never informed or invited to go along whenever the Chief Minister or Ministers visit New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister or other Union Ministers, he said. Including the UDF MPs also in these delegations will serve the State’s interests better, he opined.
Published - July 10, 2024 07:52 pm IST
