The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Dy Speaker contest: Opp rallies around SP MP who defeated BJP in Ayodhya

THE OPPOSITION is gearing up to field the Samajwadi Party’s Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad as its nominee for the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker post — a move aimed at consolidat­ing Dalit votes in Uttar Pradesh and keeping the momentum going for the Congress-sp alliance.

Recognised as the Dalit face of a “Yadav party”, Prasad ticks many boxes for the INDIA alliance, apart from his own legislativ­e experience as a nine-time MLA from Milkipur (Ayodhya). His defeat of the BJP candidate from Faizabad, months after the inaugurati­on of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya — falling within the constituen­cy — has raised his prestige. He was a rare Dalit candidate to win from a general seat.

According to a source, Prasad’s name was first proposed by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. “Largely, there is consensus with regard to

Prasad’s name with top INDIA bloc leaders endorsing it. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and others like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and DMK are also on board with the proposal,” the source told The Indian Express.

It is natural, the source added, that the nominee for the Deputy Speaker’s post comes from the party which has the

second highest number of MPS, the SP, especially since the INDIA bloc’s Speaker candidate came from the Congress.

Pointing out that the government was yet to reach out on the Deputy Speaker’s post, the source added: “The opposition arriving at a consensus on a candidate for the post is natural.”

The Opposition had rallied behind the Congress’s K Suresh as its Speaker nominee last week, forcing a rare contest for the post. This was after failing to get an assurance from the government for agreeing to an Opposition MP as Deputy Speaker, a post that the Narendra Modi government had kept vacant during its second term, 2019 to 2024.

Though Suresh lost, the Opposition feels it was able to underline its point that the Modi government needed to be more accommodat­ing, particular­ly after the BJP fell short of a majority on its own in the recent polls. Given the Opposition’s narrative that the BJP could “change the Constituti­on” and take away reservatio­n rights of Dalits, the BJP might find it hard to oppose Prasad’s candidatur­e. Also weighing on the BJP’S mind would be the coming Assembly polls, and the message that might go out.

So the Opposition is expected to force a contest, even though it would lose if the BJP does not agree to its candidate, given how the numbers are placed.

Prasadbelo­ngstothepa­sisubgroup among Dalits, the second largest group after the Jatavs amongthesc­heduledcas­tes.pasis make up 5% of UP’S population.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has been careful to give pride of place to Prasad, who goes back to his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s time, seating him next to himself in Parliament.

An SP leader said Prasad’s nomination would send a message to the Dalit community, which is seen to have rallied behind the INDIA coalition in the Lok Sabha polls in the face of the BSP’S decline, that the party would not abandon them. In a bid to expand his party’s reach beyond its traditiona­l Muslimyada­v vote bank, Akhilesh had gone to the polls on a ‘PDA (Pichla, Dalit and Alpasankhy­ak)’ plank.

The fact that Prasad’s name came up from the TMC side is also significan­t given the INDIA bloc’s tumultuous relation with the Mamata-led outfit. During the Speaker election, the TMC had left its decision on backing Suresh till the last, with its leaders complainin­g that the party had not been “consulted”.