Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 6: The Government is likely to hold election of new Speaker of the Legislative Assembly without calling full session of the House anytime in middle of this month and former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh was likely to be elected to the post unanimously with Opposition seems not inclined to contest the post in the absence of numbers.
The BJP, according to insiders, would also press for early election to the post of Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council and stake claim to the post on the ground that the Chairman belonged to the PDP.
“The PDP-BJP coalition Government is in no mood to call for full Assembly session at this stage for holding election of the Speaker, a post which had fallen vacant after the resignation of Kavinder Gupta, who has been appointed as new Deputy Chief Minister of the State,” sources told the Excelsior.
In view of this, they said, it would call for an hour long session of the Assembly members only to facilitate election of the Speaker.
As per the procedure as soon as the Cabinet takes decision to hold election of the Speaker, a notification is issued by the Government calling MLAs to meet in the Assembly premises and to the recognized parties to submit nomination form for the post. If only one name is received, the election is held unanimously. However, if the Opposition also fields a candidate, the election is conducted.
“In the present scenario, there is no possibility of the Opposition deciding to contest the post of the Speaker in the absence of numbers. Even entire Opposition united together can’t get its candidate through as PDP-BJP have support of nearly 58 MLAs in the House of 89,” sources said, adding that election of Dr Nirmal Singh, who will be coalition’s candidate for the post, is a foregone conclusion.
The Government proposed to call full session of the Legislature in the month of July, sources said.
It may be mentioned here that after appointing Kavinder Gupta as new Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP high command had decided to field Dr Nirmal Singh for the post of Speaker. In the absence of Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi is in the command.
Meanwhile, BJP sources said they would also press on their coalition partner, the PDP to hold election for the post of Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council, which has been lying vacant for past more than a year now and give the post to the BJP as the PDP already has Chairmanship of the Upper House.
Post of the Deputy Chairman of Legislative Council had fallen vacant in April 2017 after Congress MLC Jehangir Mir completed his term of the House. In 2015, then Mufti Sayeed led PDP-BJP Government had offered post of the Deputy Speaker as well as the Deputy Chairman to the Opposition. However, post of the Deputy Chairman was specifically offered to Congress leader Jehangir Mir.
As Mir completed his term of the Upper House in April 2017, the Government didn’t offer the post to the Opposition including National Conference or Congress, which are the only two Opposition parties in the Legislative Council.
“The BJP is opposed to giving post to the Opposition saying there was no such tradition prior to Jehangir Mir. It has staked claim for the post and wants one of its MLCs to be elected as the Deputy Chairman,” sources said, adding the PDP-BJP command nearly two-third majority in the Assembly and their candidate will be elected easily for the post of the Deputy Chairman.
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