LS still to elect a deputy speaker
Just 17 working days left in budget session; BJP is yet to initiate a discussion within the party or with allies
NEWDELHI: Nine months after the 17th Lok Sabha was constituted, the lower house of Parliament is yet to elect the a deputy speaker. And with just 17 working days left in the budget session, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to even initiate a discussion within the party or with allies on a probable candidate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
This is a departure from the last four terms of the house, when the post had been occupied within 1-3 months of the constitution of the new Lok Sabha.
PM Sayeed of the Congress was elected deputy speaker in December 1999, a little over a month after the national elections in which the BJP-led (NDA emerged victorious and Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister. In 2004, the Congressled United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ousted the NDA and Charanjit Singh Atwal of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) assumed the post within two months of the constitution of the 14th Lok Sabha.
BJP veteran Kariya Munda was elected to the post in 2009, again within two months.In 2014, after the BJP won the general election with majority under Narendra Modi, the NDA offered the post to a friendly party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and its leader M Thambidurai was unanimously elected deputy speaker in August, nearly three months after the 16th Lok Sabha was constituted.
The deputy speaker presides over the Lok Sabha when the speaker is absent from house. In the current Lok Sabha, in the absence of speaker Om Birla, members of a panel of chairpersons preside over the House.
Constitutional expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary said the Constitution is clear on both posts.
“The speaker and the deputy speaker are called the officers of Parliament in the Constitution and both have to be elected. Constitution makes it very clear. Deputy speaker is a must. When the speaker is absent, the deputy speaker will preside over the proceedings of the House. Normally, the deputy speaker is elected soon after the speaker’s election. That has been the practice,” he said.
The Congress hit out the BJP for the delay in the deputy speaker’s election. “The BJP has trampled upon the Constitution repeatedly. The deputy speaker’s post is a constitutional one but they (BJP) don’t follow the Constitution. It is unprecedented that the post is lying vacant for nearly one year,” Congress MP Manickam Tagore said.
BJP leaders see no design in keeping the post vacant for so long. Several BJP leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the position will be filled in due course and maintained that it was not unusual for the ruling dispensation to take its time in finding a suitable candidate for the post.
“There have been instances in the past when the position was not immediately filled. There is no time limit for announcing a name and the party will in due course come up with a name,” said a senior BJP functionary and a member of the Lok Sabha.
He said the position could be filled by the time Parliament convenes for the monsoon session in July.
A second person, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, said the functioning of the lower house hadn’t been affected by the absence of a deputy speaker.
On whether the BJP had begun negotiations with allies or even with a friendly party to finalise a name, the second functionary said the issue has not been “discussed yet”.
There has been speculation that the BJP this time may offer the post to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a friendly party headed by Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
The name of senior BJD leader and Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) who also heads the parliamentary standing committee on labour, is doing the rounds. If he indeed elected, he will have to give up his membership of the PAC.
Both BJP and BJD functionaries declined to comment on the issue.
In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP offered the post of deputy chairperson to its Bihar ally, the Janata Dal (United). Harivansh of the JD(U) is among the Rajya Sabha members whose term ends in April.
In all, the term o f 51 members comes to an end in April and there are already four vacancies in the Rajya Sabha. The elections for these 55 seats in 17 states will be held on March 26.
Seven seats will go to the polls in Maharashtra followed by six in Tamil Nadu, five each in West Bengal and Bihar, four each in Odisha, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, three each in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Assam, two each in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya.