BJD backs BJP’s Lok Sabha Speaker nominee Om Birla

As BJP has filed the name of Om Birla for the nomination of Lok Sabha speaker, Odisha's governing party Biju Janta Dal (BJD) has decided to extend their support to him in the Parliament. It may be mentioned here that BJD’s support to the BJP candidate is largely symbolic since NDA has enough numbers in the lower house of the Parliament to make its candidate win the key post.

New Delhi: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has said that it will extend its support to BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee Om Birla during the election for Lok Sabha Speaker scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

According to BJD Parliamentary Party leader Pinaki Misra, a decision on this context was taken at the meeting of the parliamentary body of the party in New Delhi. The party has also signed the proposal on nomination of Birla as Lok Sabha Speaker.

Speaking to Etv Bharat, Misra said,"NDA has a complete majority. So, their nominee for speaker is bound to be elected. They requested that there is only one name that is going to come up so it should be elected unanimously because the position of a speaker is a neutral position and is beyond party lines. Since, they've appealed to us also, so we've decided to accept their appeal and today, we've signed the form for sponsoring the name of Om Birla for Lok Sabha speaker."

As 'One Nation One Election' is high on agenda for this session and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged all the political parties to consider it as an important issue, Pinaki Mishra opined that it was orginally the idea of Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik who cut short his Assembly tenure by one year.

"No politician has ever done this in our country. This was to ensure that the people of Odisha will get benefitted by shorter Model Code of Conduct and by way of expenses being reduced. So this is an idea which we'll always continue to favour," he added.

The saffron party has nominated two-term MP from Rajasthan Birla for Lok Sabha Speaker’s post. He has been a three-time member of the Rajasthan Assembly before choosing to contest Lok Sabha polls.

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