BJP set to retain Speaker’s post in Lok Sabha, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Daggubati Purandeswari in race

New Delhi, June 17

The BJP is all set to retain the Speaker’s post in the Lok Sabha with party sources reiterating that there are no riders on the issue from allies.

Rajnath tasked with evolving consensus

The government has reportedly tasked deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with the responsibility of evolving consensus on the name of the Speaker.

“There was never any rider of any sort. No one put any conditions, not the TDP, not the JD(U),” BJP sources said.

Among the probables whose names are doing the rounds for the post are: Seven-term Lok Sabha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab who recently quit the Biju Janata Dal to join the BJP and three-term LS MP Daggubati Purandeswari.

Mahtab is a sitting Cuttack MP and Purandeswari recently won from Andhra Pradesh’s Rajahmundry. She is BJP’s Andhra unit chief and had helped bring TDP’s N Chandrababu Naidu into the NDA fold, in a move that made all the difference after June 4 results with the TDP emerging a kingmaker with 16 seats and deciding to back PM Narendra Modi’s third bid at power despite active wooing by the Opposition camp.

It is learnt that the government had tasked deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with the responsibility of evolving consensus on the name of the Speaker.

Rajnath will meet Opposition and other parties to ensure agreement on the key post that has been filled by consensus since 2004.

The Congress-led Opposition has been mulling a contest for the post. The JD(U) has publicly said the BJP should get the post, being the single largest party in the ruling NDA alliance. TDP sources have said that they are interested in strengthening the finances of Andhra Pradesh more than anything else.