MP: BJP in contention for speaker post, Congress faces maiden challenge

kamal_nath_beauracracy Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath | PTI

On the first day of the Madhya Pradesh state assembly session, the minority Congress government faced its maiden political challenge—the BJP decided to contest the elections for the assembly speaker’s post.

Conventionally, after 1967, there has not been any election to the post of assembly speaker. However, this morning before the house could begin the oath-taking of new members, former chief minister Shivraj Singh spoke out of turn to register his protest against the nomination of protem (placeholder) speaker Deepak Saxena. Shivraj Singh said that, by convention, the senior-most member of the house is made protem speaker; but Chief Minister Kamal Nath violated that. Deepak Saxena, a close supporter of Kamal Nath and four-time MLA from Chhindwara, was made protem speaker overlooking senior MLAs, who have been in the assembly for as long as straight eight terms, he said. 

The state cooperative and parliamentary affairs minister Govind Singh, however, countered the BJP's claim, saying that the selection of protem speaker was done by the governor and the chief minister. He said the government had nothing to do with his appointment. Later, the BJP declared former education minister Vijay Shah as their candidate for the post. Shah, BJP's senior-most tribal leader, submitted his nomination as speaker before A.P. Singh, the principal secretary of the assembly.

It was widely considered that the BJP would decide not to contest the speaker’s post, because it wanted one of its members as deputy speaker. The state assembly has a tradition of electing speakers unopposed; the opposition is given the post of deputy speaker. This four decade old tradition was broken today, with the BJP fielding its candidate. 

However, the Congress is unfazed. Chief Minister Kamal Nath said, "We will fight this election, and all our 121 MLS are with us". In the house of 230 members, Congress has 114, supported by 7 others, while BJP has 109 members. The election to the speaker's post will be held tomorrow.