Even as the Monsoon Session of Parliament began with the election for the post of deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha is now without a deputy speaker for a record 456 days.
The post has for the first time been vacant for more than a year after the constitution of the 17th Lok Sabha, and the duration is much longer than the 269 days it had taken for the post to be filled in 1998.
Prior to the present instance, the longest that it had taken for the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha to be elected was in 1998, after the constitution of the 12th Lok Sabha. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister. The principal opposition party, the Congress, wanted to put up a candidate for the post and it was keen on the then Lakshadweep MP P.M. Sayeed occupying the seat. However, consensus eluded his name and the session concluded. Consensus was built around his name in the intervening period before the next session, and he was elected deputy speaker.
In the run-up to the Monsoon Session, opposition parties, particularly the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, have criticised the delay in election of deputy speaker of the lower house. Congress's leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Speaker Om Birla about the imperativeness of filling the post.
“I would urge upon you that during the Monsoon Session itself, the deputy speaker of Lok Sabha must be elected. I hope that this house will be adhering to the constitutional mandate under your guidance,” he wrote.
Chowdhury said that according to the constitutional mandate, the seat of deputy speaker of Lok Sabha should be filled either by election or consensus as early as may be after a new Lok Sabha is constituted. By convention, the post of deputy speaker is offered to the opposition and instances are galore, he said.
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien criticised the government for the delay in the election of a deputy speaker, saying, “Normally, it has taken about two weeks, two months, three months, six months to elect a deputy speaker. This government has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha. What is taking them so long? Has any other government taken longer than them?”
“This has never happened before. What a dubious record. Parliament is being mocked. The Trinamool Congress, and I am sure, many other opposition parties will do all it takes to highlight this mockery of democracy, this mockery of Parliament,” he said.
At a press conference ahead of the Monsoon Session, responding to queries on the post of the deputy speaker lying vacant for so long, Birla said that it was up to the government and the House to take a call on election of his deputy.
Article 93 of the Constitution states that the Lok Sabha will choose two members of the House to be the speaker and the deputy speaker at the earliest possible.
In the previous Lok Sabha, AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai was elected unopposed to the post of deputy speaker.
