Lok Sabah Speaker Election: On TMC’s ‘unilateral decision’ remark, K Suresh says ‘they will cooperate’

Congress MP K Suresh on Wednesday issued a clarification over Trinamool Congress’ “unilateral decision” remark for the INDIA bloc’s pick for the Lok Sabha Speaker post, saying the TMC leaders will cooperate with the opposition alliance because everything was cleared at a meeting yesterday.

Suresh stated that TMC leaders — Derek O’Brien and Kalyan Banerjee — attended a held by INDIA bloc at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Tuesday evening.

“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 West Bengal ruling party has expressed “disappointment” over the Congress’ nomination of Kodikunnil Suresh for the LS speaker post. TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee told reporters his party was “not consulted” on fielding of Congress’ K Suresh as the opposition’s nominee and termed it a “unilateral decision”.

Election for the Speaker post will be held in the Lower House of Parliament on June 26 with K Suresh and Om Birla as candidates. Suresh also holds the distinction of being the longest-serving parliamentarian in the src8th Lok Sabha — he has remained MP for 29 years.

While the NDA has support of 297 MPs in the Lok Sabha — the majority, INDIA bloc would see its own numbers boosted if TMC vows to back K Suresh. Notably, the opposition alliance will have the support of 263 MPs — 29 more if TMC agrees to be on board.

Lok Sabha Speakers have only been selected by election twice before in the Parliament—in src952 when Congress’ GV Malvankar contested against CPI’s Shankar Shantaram More and in src976 when Congress’ BR Bhagat contested against Jan Sangh’s Jagannathrao Joshi, backed by Congress.

Traditionally, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Speaker were elected through consensus between the ruling party and the Opposition. But the stand-off began after NDA refused to allot Deputy Speaker position to an INDIA bloc candidate in return for backing Birla.

(With inputs from agencies)

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