Will NDA Backing Give Om Birla The Upper Hand In Speaker Election?

The National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate, Om Birla, holds a strong lead over his Congress rival, K Suresh, with the support of at least 293 MPs for the Lok Sabha Speaker election.

This election marks only the fourth time in Lok Sabha history that the Speaker will be chosen through an election. Traditionally, the Speaker was nominated after reaching a consensus in the House.

For today's election, the odds are heavily against the INDIA bloc's candidate, K Suresh.

The BJP candidate has the backing of 293 NDA MPs, with additional support potentially coming from four YSRCP MPs and independents.

In contrast, the INDIA bloc has 233 members in the Lok Sabha. At least three independents are likely to vote for Suresh, bringing the effective number to 236. The bloc might also receive support from some smaller parties and other independents.

Meanwhile, at least five of the INDIA bloc's MPs have not taken the oath, reported NDTV. These members include Shashi Tharoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Deepak Adhikari, Nurul Islam, and Afzhal Ansari.

It remains unclear if they will be allowed to vote. If they are not, the majority mark in the House will decrease, benefiting the ruling alliance.

The Trinamool Congress has stated that it was not consulted before K Suresh's candidacy for the Speaker election was announced.

However, K Suresh mentioned that the confusion was resolved during the INDIA bloc's meeting at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence on Tuesday night.

"Everything cleared up yesterday evening. Their leaders - Derek O'Brien and Kalyan Banerjee - attended the INDIA Alliance meeting last evening at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence. We explained the situation, they could understand the situation and they will also cooperate with us," he told ANI.

The INDIA bloc nominated Suresh after the government's "non-committal" stance on their demand for the Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker post.

According to the BJP, the government indicated that they would discuss the Deputy Speaker post later, but the INDIA bloc insisted on fulfilling this precondition before supporting Om Birla.

Elections for the Speaker's post have been held three times before: first in 1952, when GV Mavalankar contested against Shankar Shantaram, then in 1967 between Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and Opposition candidates Shankar Shantaram More, Tenniti Vishwanathan, and Jagannatharao Joshi, and finally in 1976 during the Emergency, between Baligram Bhagat and Jagannath Rao. In all three cases, the ruling party's nominees, Mavalankar, Bhagat, and Reddy, emerged victorious.