“I am confident that you will allow us to speak. The question is not how efficiently the House is run. The question is how much of India’s voice is being allowed to be heard stated Rahul Gandhi the LOP.
So the idea that you can run the House efficiently by silencing the voice of the Opposition is a non-democratic idea. And this election has shown that the people of India expect the Opposition to defend the Constitution,” said Mr Gandhi, who is now the Leader of the Opposition.
Leaders from the Opposition benches also brought up the mass suspension of MPs in the last term in their congratulatory messages.
This was only the third election for the Lok Sabha Speaker after Independence. The voting took place after the Congress forced a contest and fielded its eight-time MP K Suresh as a challenger.
The numbers, however, were clearly on Birla’s side. While the NDA candidate had the support of 297 MPs, the Opposition pick had 232.
The Lok Sabha Speaker is generally chosen with consensus. This time, the government had reached out to Opposition parties for their support.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had then responded that it will support the NDA candidate if the Deputy Speaker is appointed from the Opposition benches.
