Agencies
NEW DELHI, June 17: If the opposition forces an election to the post of Speaker of the Lok Sabha next week, it would be the first such instance in the history of independent India as the presiding officer has always been chosen by a consensus.
Elections to the post of the Speaker of the Central Legislative Assembly, as Parliament was called in the pre-independence days, were held for the first time on August 24, 1925, when Swarajist Party nominee Vitthalbhai J Patel won the coveted post against T Rangachariar.
Patel, the first non-official member to be elected as the Speaker, won the maiden election with a narrow margin of two votes. Patel had polled 58 votes against 56 garnered by Rangachariar.
Since Independence, Lok Sabha Speakers have been chosen by consensus, and only M A Ayyangar, G S Dhillon, Balram Jakhar and G M C Balayogi have retained the coveted posts in the subsequent Lok Sabhas. Jakhar was the Speaker of the seventh and the eighth Lok Sabhas and holds the distinction of being the only presiding officer to complete two full terms.
Balayogi was chosen as the Speaker of the 12th Lok Sabha, which had a tenure of 19 months. He was also chosen as the Speaker of the 13th Lok Sabha on October 22, 1999, till his death in a chopper crash on March 3, 2002. Buoyed by its increased strength in the Lok Sabha, the opposition INDIA bloc is now aggressively demanding the post of the Deputy Speaker, which by convention is held by a member of an opposition party.
However, in the last Lok Sabha, the post of Deputy Speaker remained vacant, drawing criticism from the opposition.
"We will force a contest for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker if the government does not agree to have an opposition leader as Deputy Speaker," a senior Congress leader said.
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