Lok Sabha will have Dy Speaker, talks soon to decide if post with NDA or Opposition

The 18th Lok Sabha will have a Deputy Speaker, a source in the government said Thursday.

“There will be a Deputy Speaker in this House. But it has not yet been decided if the post should be offered to the Opposition or NDA allies or if the BJP should keep it. There will be discussions on it,” the source said.

The Congress has been demanding that the Deputy Speaker post go to the Opposition.

In the 17th Lok Sabha, the post remained vacant while in 2014, AIADMK’s M Thambi Durai was Deputy Speaker. During the Congress-led UPA’s two terms, the post was offered to the BJP and its MPs Charanjit Singh Atwal and Kariya Munda became Deputy Speaker in 2004 and 2009, respectively.

This time, BJP partners TDP and JD(U) have maintained that they will not demand the post.

On Wednesday, TDP national spokesperson Pattabi Ram Kommareddy told The Indian Express: “We are not aspiring for the post. We have made it very clear.” The BJP too, he said, has not approached the TDP to fill the post.

Another top TDP leader said, “From the beginning, the TDP has not expressed its interest in either the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker post. We have left it open to the other (NDA) allies, that is if they are interested.”

Sources in the Opposition said the government has not communicated anything to them so far.

A section in the Congress is of the view that a party MP should be nominated if the post is offered to the Opposition, but another section thinks that the Congress should offer the post to its allies and create a positive perception about the unity of the INDIA bloc.