Election today

New Delhi: The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha has begun in the country and there has been a situation of tension between the ruling party and the opposition from the very first day. The ruling party and the opposition could not agree on the unopposed nomination of the Speaker. Now, for the first time in the history of the Lok Sabha, elections for the Speaker will be held on Wednesday. Congress has fielded Dalit leader K. Suresh against NDA MP Om Birla. The NDA did not accept the Congress' demand of giving the post of Vice President in exchange for support for the post of President. Therefore, the Congress has decided to hold elections not only for the post of Speaker but also for the post of Deputy Speaker.

With the beginning of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha, indications have started to emerge about what the future of the country will be like. Before the session on Monday, PM Modi targeted the opposition and said that it has been 50 years since late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi remembered the Emergency imposed on June 25. At the same time, when many big MPs including PM Modi came to take oath, the leaders of India Alliance including Rahul Gandhi showed them the copy of the Constitution. Thus both the parties have adopted the path of confrontation.

On behalf of NDA, Kota MP Om Birla filed his nomination at the last moment, as the deadline for filing nomination for the post of Speaker was 12 noon. On the other hand, K. Suresh filed his nomination on behalf of Bharat Gathbandhan. Now voting for the post of Speaker in the Lok Sabha will be held at 11 am on Wednesday. After this it will be decided who will become the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Om Birla, who was elected MP for the third time from Kota, Rajasthan, has also been the Speaker in the previous Lok Sabha, while his rival Dalit leader K. Suresh has been an MP from Kerala eight times.

After the president K. Suresh filed his candidature, the All India Alliance leaders held a meeting at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday evening to chalk out the election strategy. However, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee said at this time that there was no discussion with Suresh on the fielding of Congress' K. Suresh. Congress has made this announcement by taking a unilateral decision. We will discuss with party supremo Mamata Banerjee and decide whether to support Suresh or not. According to sources, Trinamool Congress did not sign the support in the nomination form of K. Suresh as the candidate of All India Alliance.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that it has not been even 24 hours since Prime Minister Modi spoke positively about running the country and he is not ready to hand over the post of Vice President to the opposition as per the tradition of years. It is a tradition in the country that the post of Speaker goes to the ruling party and the post of Deputy Speaker goes to the opposition. But PM Modi has broken this tradition. The 2019 Lok Sabha was held without the post of Deputy Speaker while in the 16th Lok Sabha of 2014, the post of Deputy Speaker was given to the ally party. In recent times, Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao gave the post of Vice President to the opposition.

Meanwhile, the Congress-led All India Alliance and the BJP-led NDA have issued a three-line whip to their MPs to be present in the Lok Sabha at 11 am on Wednesday during the presidential election and support MPs of their faction. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed NDA MPs to reach the Lok Sabha by 10.30 am. He also said that attendance is mandatory.

Birla's win against K. Suresh is certain, numbers are in his favour: sources

Sources say that the figures indicate that Om Birla will win the Lok Sabha Speaker election. In the current Lok Sabha, the NDA has 293 MPs while the India Block has 233 MPs. Apart from this, three independent MPs have supported the opposition, increasing the number to 236. However, BJP sources claim that not all parties in the India Alliance are in favor of the presidential election. Trinamool also nominated opposition candidate K. Suresh has not revealed whether he will support or not.