Key Points
The Supreme Court earlier this month served a notice to the Union of India and five states, including Uttar Pradesh, pointing out that they had not filled up the post of the Deputy Speaker..
The Congress proposed the name of Atmaram Govind Kher for the Speakers post and tried to persuade the Opposition parties to agree to a unanimous election, but the Socialist Party led by Raj Narain said they would accede to the demand only if the ruling party agreed to make an Opposition leader the Deputy Speaker...
But Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant opposed the Socialists demand and the Congress, which had 388 of the 430 Assembly seats, saw elections being held for the Speakers post after three days of frenetic negotiations to arrive at a consensus candidate..
Since then, the 1957 experiment has been cited as the model to follow whenever the Deputy Speakers post has emerged as the bone of contention between the ruling party and the Opposition..
Interestingly, in the 13th UP Assembly that was in session from 1996 to February 2002, the BJP was in power since October 1997 but a Deputy Speaker was elected only on September 28, 2001, which was the last day of the Assemblys last session..
