Meira Kumar — Sonia Gandhi’s choice for the Lok Sabha Speaker — is set to become the unanimous candidate for the job of presiding officer in the Lower House as all major parties are likely to back her candidature.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — the main Opposition party in the 15th Lok Sabha — has decided not to field any candidate against Kumar, who will become the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Congress managers have also sought the help of the Left parties to elect Kumar unopposed. Although the Left fought a loud battle against the Congress during the general elections, key Congress negotiators claim that the Left, too, will support Kumar. NDA allies, toeing the BJP line of not putting up a candidate against a Dalit woman for the Speaker’s post, are also likely to support Kumar.
The Congress will, however, offer the Deputy Speaker’s post to the BJP following the unwritten convention of the House. According to top sources of the BJP, Sumitra Mahajan may emerge as its candidate for the post.
In 2004, then CPI(M) MP Somnath Chatterjee also became an unanimous candidate for the Speaker’s post.
Many in the Congress believe party president Sonia Gandhi has played a master stroke by proposing Meira Kumar’s name as the Speaker. “Not only she thwarted moves within the Congress for any other candidate but also made the Opposition toe her line,” observed a senior party leader.
According to sources, in the Core Committee meeting of the Congress, before anyone could propose any other name, Gandhi proposed the name of Meira Kumar to make the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha. While a large section of the party was in favour of V Kishore Chandra Deo from Andhra Pradesh, Gandhi’s pre-emptive move left no scope for any other candidate.
Gandhi also pointed out at the meeting that the Congress had made Pratibha Patil the first woman President of the country and now it should be the one to appoint the first woman Speaker as well.
But an influential section of the party also points out that it was not Kumar whom Gandhi favoured in the initial stage. “If the Congress president had decided on Kumar, she would not have been included in the Cabinet,” said another senior leader. According to this section, a large section of the Andhra Pradesh party unit, including Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy, opposed Deo’s name for the Speaker’s post.
