New Delhi: BJP MP Om Birla has been elected as the speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha on Wednesday. He will steer the Lower House for the second time. Birla was also the Speaker from 2019 to 2024.
The voting for the Lok Sabha Speaker happened for the first time. The opposition broke the tradition of unanimously choosing the speaker. The opposition has put forth a condition for the deputy speaker, which is that democracy does not run on conditions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has moved the motion for the election of Birla as the Speaker. The motion was seconded by senior BJP leaders and its allies such as TDP, JDU, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and Chirag Paswan’s LJP.
Following the win, Birla was congratulated by PM Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, both of whom escorted him to the Speaker’s chair. Prime Minister Modi today said that Birla’s experience of being a Speaker in the last term would help him guide the country further. He was up against Congress candidate K Suresh, who filed his nomination after the ruling party and Opposition failed to reach a consensus last evening.
Born on 23 November 1962, Birla is an Indian politician and businessman who has served as a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Kota constituency in Rajasthan since 2014. In 2024 he became the first person in 20 years to be re-elected as an MP to the lower house, after serving as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and also one of the only MPs to be appointed the speaker twice.
Birla was also a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly representing the Kota South assembly constituency from 2003 to 2014.
