Karia Munda to be Dy Speaker

KT NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI: Meira Kumar, the 63-year old daughter of tribal icon and late deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, will be anointed as the first tribal woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

She is all set to be elected unopposed.

Former union minister and tribal leader Karia Munda will Bharatiya Janta Party's candidate for the post of Deputy Speaker.

A record number of 15 motions are listed for Miera's election as the Speaker.

Except for the Left Parties and BSP, all others have filed the motions to be taken up on Wednesday as the only business, besides the members who have not already taken the oath or made the affirmation to do so.

Topping the motions is one in the name of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and seconded by leader of House Pranab Mukherjee, followed by the second motion by Lal Krishna Advani, seconded by Sushma Swaraj.

The third motion is in the name of Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee, seconded by Dr Ratna De Nag.

Other motions, in the order of priority, are by T R Baalu (DMK), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Dr Bali Ram Jadhav (Shiv Sena), Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Lalu Prasad (RJD), Dr Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), E Ahamed (Muslim League), Asaduddin Owaisi (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) and Ram Sundar Das(JD-U).

Two motions are from JD(U), one by Sharad Yadav and other by Das.

They are seconded by Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Bhudeo Choudhary.

Former Union Minister and tribal leader Karia Munda, 72, is the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party's candidate for the post of the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

The BJP's central parliamentary board Tuesday evening cleared his name for the post in response to the Prime Minister's offer to opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani to give the deputy speaker's post to the BJP.

Dr Manmohan Singh had made the offer while seeking support for an unopposed election of Meira Kumar as the Speaker.

Though Wednesday's business is limited to anointment as the Speaker, the BJP sources said the Deputy Speaker's election which is also going to be unopposed may take place on Friday or Monday.

Munda, whose several attempts to become Jharkhand Chief Minister failed, has been elected to the Lok Sabha from the state for the sixth time.

He has been the union minister in the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and also in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.