Meira creates history, becomes first woman LS Speaker

NEW DELHI: Congress candidate Meira Kumar was elected Speaker of the 15 th Lok Sabha unanimously on Wednesday.

As soon as the Lok Sabha session began, Sonia, according to the agenda, proposed Kumar as the Speaker of the new House. Her name was seconded by Leader of Opposition L K Advani and other political leaders. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Advani then accompanied her to the Speaker's chair completing the formality.

With every side deciding to endorse her candidature, her election to the top post was a unanimous affair.

Altogether 13 sets of nominations were submitted on Tuesday by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee to Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary. Among those who backed her bid for the constitutional post were UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition L K Advani, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Mukherjee led a group of UPA leaders to the secretary general's office in a formal show of solidarity behind Kumar. Among them were Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Lalu Prasad and E Ahmed.

While Sonia's proposal was seconded by Mukherjee, that of Advani was done by his party colleague Sushma Swaraj.

Kumar, who was part of the delegation visiting the secretary general, later termed her ascent to the Speaker's chair as a historic moment. "It is both historic and overwhelming," she told reporters. A five-time MP, she resigned as minister for water resources after Congress backed her for Speaker.

Not originally her party's choice, Kumar found strong support from the Congress leadership on two counts - a woman, she carries a rich dalit legacy.

Precisely for this reason, the BJP was reluctant to oppose her. For its part, the Opposition party moved a notch up in the game of identity politics by proposing a tribal - Karia Munda - for the deputy Speaker's post.

After Congress scored on the empowerment quotient naming Dalit woman leader Meira Kumar as UPA's nominee for the Speaker's post, BJP played the tribal card by selecting its veteran MP from Jharkhand Karia Munda as its candidate for deputy Speaker.

BJP's central parliamentary board took the decision at a meeting after the government's proposal that the deputy Speaker's post be offered to the main Opposition.

Seventy two-year-old Munda was a minister in the Morarji Desai government and later in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry. When asked whether Munda's candidature was aimed at winning tribal support for the party, BJP leader Jaitley said, "It is true that Munda belongs to the ST community, but along with that he has vast legislative experience and this decision was made considering his seniority."

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