Election for Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker on Wednesday

Election for the post of Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker will take place on Wednesday with the process of nomination to be undertaken tomorrow. A schedule for the election is expected shortly, Parliament sources said.

Reports had it that AIADMK leader M Thambidurai is the likely choice for the post. The move to give the post to AIADMK is seen as a gesture towards Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and also a bid to split the opposition ranks. Thambidurai is leader of AIADMK in the House. He was deputy Speaker from 1985 to 1989 and held Cabinet as well as minister of state portfolios from 1998 to 1999.

There has been no decision on the issue of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for which Congress has been pitching for long. Government has said that it favoured giving the post of head of the prestigious Public Accounts Committee to the Congress.