Deadlock Over Speaker Election Continues: K Suresh, Om Birla, Congress-Trinamool

The party, complaining about not being consulted about fielding a candidate, ended the day by expressing disapproval of the Congress’ decision and keeping the alliance uncertain about its support for K Suresh. At a meeting of the INDIA bloc at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s house on Tuesday evening, Trinamool expressed its reservation about the decision to go for a contest.

They argued that some members could not take oath and some Opposition MPs are in jail, so a contest at this point would only display the NDA’s strength. The Congress’s last-minute decision to field Mr. Suresh and force a contest had angered Trinamool, who called the move “unilateral”.

Several hours and explanations later, the party attended the Opposition meet, only to express its reservations. Before the meeting, Rahul Gandhi had spoken to Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee and Mr. Suresh had called the party for support.

The Congress said there was no time for consultation as they had decided to field a candidate just 10 minutes before the deadline. The party was also irked by the BJP’s refusal to give the Opposition the post of the Deputy Speaker.

This morning, the government made it clear that they were not considering a Deputy Speaker post for now. Rahul Gandhi said, “Rajnath Singh called Mallikarjun Kharge and asked him to extend support… entire Opposition said we will support but convention is Deputy Speaker should be from our side.

Rajnath Singh said he would call back… but he has not yet…PM is asking for cooperation but our leader is getting insulted.” The Trinamool, which did not have the best of relations with the Congress, had put its membership from the INDIA bloc on hold in the run-up to the polls after a dispute over seat sharing in Bengal.

After the election, they came back to the fold, and today was the first day after the results, when unease crept into the alliance. It was not just Trinamool; sources said after the meeting that alliance leaders had underscored that they were not informed about Sonia Gandhi’s decision to appoint her son Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition.