Karia Munda set to become Deputy Speaker

NEW DELHI: Karia Munda, one of the seniormost tribal leaders of the country, is set to become the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Once he���s formally elected to the post, it���ll be a dalit-tribal combo which will be presiding over the Lok Sabha in the next five years. Former Union minister Meira Kumar was on June 3 unanimously elected as the Speaker.

The BJP veteran, who made it to the Lok Sabha from his old constituency of Khunti, which lies of the outskirts of the Jharkhand capital, Ranchi, for the sixth time, will be unanimously elected as the deputy speaker on Monday as no other MP has filed his nomination papers for the post. His candidature has been been backed by parties across the board, barring the Left, which has not proposed or endorsed his name.

The 72-year-old BJP leader filed his nomination papers for the deputy speaker���s post on Friday. As many as 13 sets of nomination papers were filed on his behalf. These included six from the NDA, and five from the UPA.

Two sets of nomination papers were filed on his behalf from his party, BJP. While Leader of the Opposition L K Advani proposed his name in the first set, it was seconded by BJP president Rajnath Singh. The second set was introduced by Ms Sushma Swaraj and endorsed by Mr Ananth Kumar.

Among the other NDA leaders who proposed Mr Munda���s candidature included JD(U)���s Sharad Yadav, Shiv Sena���s Anant Geete, Akali Dal���s Ratan Singh Ajnala and RLD���s Ajit Singh.

The UPA leaders who proposed Mr Munda���s name for the deputy speaker���s post included Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee (seconded by parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal), NCP���s Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress��� Sudip Bandopadhyaya, DMK���s T R Baalu and IUML���s E Ahamed.

RAJD chief Lalu Prasad and SP���s Reoti Raman Singh too proposed the BJP leader���s name for the post.