Opposition gears up for Deputy Speaker contest, rallies around MP who defeated BJP from Ayodhya

According to a source, Prasad’s name was first proposed by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo 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.

Prasad belongs to the Pasi sub-group among Dalits, which are the second largest group after the Jatavs among the Scheduled Castes, and which 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 Muslim-Yadav vote bank, Akhilesh had gone to the polls on a ‘PDA (Pichla, Dalit and Alpasankhyak)’ plank.

“This is an excellent time for us to expand beyond the Muslims and Yadavs. The Dalit community has been looking at us with expectation as the threat to reservations and the Constitution is their main issue with the BJP,” another SP leader said, adding that a further consolidation could help the party even swing the 2027 Assembly polls in UP.

Underlining the significance of Prasad’s possible nomination as a united Opposition candidate, a senior Congress leader said: “He defeated them (the BJP) from a seat in the name of which the BJP contested the Lok Sabha elections. It is also significant because a Dalit defeated the BJP in their most prestigious battle.”

Since the June 4 results, both Rahul and Akhilesh have constantly spoken about the BJP’s defeat in Ayodhya. The Opposition has said it is the clearest marker that the party had failed in its bid to create “religious hatred”.

Another Congress leader pointed out that their support to Prasad would send a signal to the Hindi heartland that the party will not give up on the region that sends the maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha, and which gave the party 7 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats it contested – up from one, five years ago. “We want to continue the momentum. Our alliance with the SP has worked and is progressing very well,” the leader said.

On Friday, the Congress released a photograph of Prasad having lunch with Rahul and some other MPs.

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”.