New Delhi. The election for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker is to be held today at 11 am. All the members of Lok Sabha will vote. At the same time, breaking the decades-old tradition, BJP MP Om Birla and Congress MP K Suresh have filed nominations for the election of the Speaker on Tuesday. Today there is a direct contest between three-time MP Om Birla from Kota, Rajasthan and 8-time MP Kodikunnil Suresh from Mavelikara, Kerala.

Encouraged by the results of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress put forth a condition before the BJP for supporting the NDA candidate that the opposition should get the post of Deputy Speaker. However, the BJP did not bow down to the politics of "pressure" of the opposition and decided to face the election.

The failure to arrive at a consensus on the first issue that came up before the 18th Lok Sabha shows the opposition's intention to send a message to the government that it cannot be suppressed on important matters.

Some important points regarding the presidential election-

1. On Monday, KC Venugopal and DMK's TR Baalu ​​met Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and JP Nadda at the Defence Minister's office in Parliament. However, India Bloc leaders walked out, saying the government did not want to follow the tradition of supporting the opposition's candidate for the Deputy Chairman's post. They later broke tradition and announced K Suresh's candidature for the Speaker's post.
2. Union ministers Piyush Goyal (BJP) and Lalan Singh (JDU) accused the opposition of playing pressure politics and imposing pre-conditions despite assurances from senior ministers that their demand would be considered. "There cannot be pressure politics," Lalan Singh told reporters.
3. Om Birla is likely to win the election as the National Democratic Alliance has 293 members in the lower house of Parliament. The India Block has 233 members. The opposition alliance had won 234 seats, but Rahul Gandhi left the Wayanad seat. According to PTI, three independent members of the Lok Sabha may support the opposition.
4. According to BJP sources, the Congress has been the main aggressor on the issue and some other India Bloc members were not very keen on contesting the election, PTI reported. Meanwhile, the YSRCP may support the NDA candidate.
5. Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress expressed disappointment over Congress' decision to nominate K Suresh for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker, saying it was not consulted.
6. TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said that K Suresh's candidature is a unilateral decision. He said, we were not contacted regarding this, there was no discussion. Unfortunately, this is a unilateral decision. TMC will clarify its stand today before the elections.
7. The India Block held a meeting of its floor leaders at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in Delhi to chalk out the election strategy. Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party president Hanuman Beniwal as well as two TMC leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Derek O'Brien and other India Block leaders were present at the meeting.
8. India Bloc candidate K Suresh is currently the longest-serving Lok Sabha MP, as he has been an MP for 29 years. He is the working president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and was the chief whip of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the 17th Lok Sabha.
9. If Birla, a BJP MP from Kota, is elected, it will be the fifth time a Speaker will serve beyond one Lok Sabha term. However, Congress leader Balram Jakhar is the only presiding officer to have completed two full terms, spanning the seventh and eighth Lok Sabhas. Birla, a three-time MP, is also a three-time former MLA from Rajasthan.
10. K Suresh said the government had not responded to the opposition's request till 11.50 am. "In the last two Lok Sabhas, they refused to give us the post of deputy speaker because they said you are not recognised as the opposition," he said.
11. He told reporters, "Now we are recognised as the opposition and the post of Deputy Speaker is our right. But they are not ready to give it to us. Till 11.50 am we were waiting for a response from the government, but they did not respond."
12. Traditionally, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Speaker have been elected by consensus between the ruling party and the opposition. However, the election for the post of Speaker has been held at least twice in the parliamentary history of India. The first instance was in 1952 when GV Malvankar of the Congress contested against CPI candidate Shankar Shantaram More. The second instance was in 1976 when BR Bhagat of the Congress contested against Jagannathrao Joshi of the Jana Sangh and was supported by the Congress.

The meeting held in Rajnath Singh's office failed

During the meeting at Rajnath Singh's office, Congress' KC Venugopal sought an immediate assurance of the Deputy Chairman's post to the opposition in return for re-electing Om Birla unopposed. However, this was not acceptable as the BJP-led NDA did not want any conditional support. BJP leaders present at the meeting said the Deputy Chairman's post would be discussed later and the opposition would be consulted. However, KC Venugopal remained adamant and the talks failed.

This is how the speaker of Lok Sabha is elected

In Lok Sabha, both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are elected by a simple majority of the members present and voting in the House. Simple majority means that the person who gets more than 50 percent of the votes of all the MPs present in the House at that time is elected as the Speaker.

In the current situation, there are 542 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Rahul Gandhi has resigned from one seat, Wayanad, so by-election is pending on that seat. In such a situation, out of 542 seats, 293 seats are with the NDA. At the same time, half of 542 is 271. In this way, the BJP-led NDA alliance has a majority in the House and it is unlikely to have any difficulty in electing a speaker of its choice. But it will not be an easy task for the INDIA block as they will need 271 votes to win the election. As far as numbers are concerned, the NDA has 293 members in the Lok Sabha, while the India block has 233.

Seven MPs will not be able to vote

At the same time, there are seven MPs who are yet to take oath in the Lok Sabha, including five MPs from the INDIA block and two from the NDA. According to sources, they will be sworn in after the election of the Speaker. As a result, these seven MPs will not be able to vote in the Lok Sabha Speaker election.