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LS gears up to elect new Speaker

New Delhi: As the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha begins on Monday the Lok Sabha Secretariat has also geared up to start the process of election of new Speaker.

As the last date for submitting nominations for the Speaker post is on June 18, the NDA government has convened an all-party meeting on Sunday and speculations are rife that on that day ruling party would announce its candidate for the post of Speaker.

In contrary to the ruling party, the Opposition parties have not yet finalised any strategy for election of Speaker. Notably, in the 16th Lok Sabha Opposition parties had not fielded any candidate and NDA's Sumitra Mahajan was elected unopposed.

This time the ruling alliance has not proposed any name so far but it's speculated that after Niti Aayog meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi would ask party president and Home Minister Amit Shah to declare names of both Speaker and Deputy Speaker nominees. As per sources, the BJP may offer deputy speaker post for any non-NDA party. If it happens, the deputy speaker post may go either BJD or YSR Congress.

The BJP has already announced seven-time MP from Madhya Pradesh Birendra Kumar as pro-tem Speaker to administer the oath

of office to newly elected members of Parliament on June 17 and 18.

The election of Speaker would take place on June 19. It's been speculated that first-time pro-tem Speaker Birendra Kumar may continue as full-time Speaker, but it's not yet been confirmed. Besides, Birendra Kumar, three senior members --- Kodikunnil Suresh, Brij Bhushan Singh and Bhartruhari Mahtab --- who have been nominated by President Ramnath Kovind as pro-tem chairman, would also administer the oath of the office to the new MPs in the absence of Kumar.

The names of SS Ahluwalia and Maneka Gandhi are also doing the rounds for Speaker post.

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