Sumitra Mahajan to be Lok Sabha Speaker

New Delhi, June 5: BJP leader

will be the Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha with senior leaders from all parties, including Prime Minister

, moving motions today proposing her name for the high office.

Mahajan's was the only name that was proposed as the time for filing nomination for the post came to a close at noon today. The formal election will take place tomorrow. Opposition leaders, including the Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Sudip Bandopadhyay (Trinamool Congress), B Mahtab (BJD), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), H D Deve Gowda (JDS), Supriya Sule (NCP), Mohammed Salip (CPI-M) and Jitendra Reddy (TRS) are among the 19-proposers for Mahajan's name.

72-year-old Mahajan is an eight-term Lok Sabha member from Indore and has worked for long in the panel of Chairperson of the House. Besides the Prime Minister, other BJP leaders who have given motions proposing her name include Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj. The motion given by the Prime Minister is seconded by BJP veteran L K Advani while that of Rajnath is by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Santosh Gangwar.

Swaraj's motion has been seconded by BJP leader Giriraj Singh. The other proposers in the ruling NDA include Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Anant Geete (Shiv Sena), Thota Narsimham (TDP) and Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD). Mahajan, lovingly called 'Tai', is known for her amicable nature and has her friends and admirers in all parties.

The name of AIADMK member M Thambidurai is doing the rounds for the post of Deputy Speaker since the party supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha had a lengthy meeeting with the Prime Minister two days back. The AIADMK recently made Thambidurai its Parliamentary party leader, a post he had held in the last Lok Sabha as well.

Thambidurai represents Karur Lok Sabha constituency and has been a Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha some time back. Thambidurai was Deputy Speaker between 1985 and 1989. With the BJP-led NDA not having majority in the Rajya Sabha, it wants support from other parties and for this purpose, AIADMK, which has ten members in the Upper House, is apparently being wooed.

However, there has been no formal word either from the BJP or AIADMK on the issue. In the 245-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP has just 42 members and its ally Shiv Sena-3, Shirmomani Akali Dal-3 and TDP-6. RPI-A is having one member.

PTI