Thiruvananthapuram : The 15th Legislative Assembly has begun election for its Speaker early Monday. MB Rajesh will contest for LDF and PC Vishnunath(Kundra) for UDF.
The voting is being carried out under supervision of Protem Speaker, PTA Rahim. The first ballot was cast by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, followed by Minister M V Govindan. Voting is done in order of the seating arrangements of MLAs and the Ministers. Candidate preference is marked with a tick on the ballot paper.
Each candidate submitted their Nomination Papers to the Legislative Assembly Secretary, SV Unnikrishnan, on Monday. Two set of papers were submitted by MB Rajesh – one recommended by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and seconded by Minister Roshy Augustine and the other nominated by CPI Legislative Leader E Chandrashekaran and backed by JDS Legislative Party Leader Mathew T Thomas. Vishnunath has his recommendation coming from Opposition Leader VD Satheeshan and seconded by Muslim League Legislative Party Leader, PK Kunjalikutty.
LDF has 99 legislators and UD 41. 136 MLAs, apart from Protem Speaker took oath in the Assembly yesterday. Owing to health reasons, 3 MLAs kept away from the swearing-in session yesterday – Minister V Abdul Rehman and Nenmara MLA K Babu from LDF, and UDF MLA from Kovalam, Vincent. They have not been able to make it to the Assembly today either. Typically, the Protem Speaker does not vote on the occasion.
Deputy Speaker Election Later
The elected Speaker will decide on date for Deputy Speaker election. Revised budget would be presented to the House by the Finance Minister on 4 June. As per norms, the general sessions slated from 7 June would be inaugurated by the Deputy Speaker. Therefore the election for Dy Speaker will likely take place before . Adoor MLA Chittayam Gopakumar is LDF candidate for Dy Speaker’s post. It is unclear if UDF will field any candidate.
