West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a bid to strengthen opposition unity, has proposed the name of Faizabad MP and Samajwadi Party leader Awadhesh Prasad for the post of Deputy Speaker of Parliament, sources have told CNN-News18.
Banerjee raised the request to the Congress and SP via TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee last week and party sources said the latter held talks with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. They added that the Grand Old Party has agreed to the proposal.
The sources said Banerjee’s decision to back Prasad stemmed from the fact that he had won from Faizabad in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Ayodhya falls under this constituency and the BJP had projected Ram Mandir as a poll plank. However, despite the high-decibel campaign, Prasad defeated BJP’s candidate by over 50,000 votes. The TMC chief is of the view that Prasad as Deputy Speaker will rub salt on BJP’s wounds.
Apart from this, Prasad’s close association with Chaudhury Charan Singh — the first non-Congress chief minister of Uttar Pradesh — is expected to earn the INDIA bloc the support of farmers.
Though there were skirmishes between Congress and TMC as the Grand Old Party — without consulting Trinamool — fielded K Suresh for the Speaker’s post in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, Abhishek Banerjee, and Akhilesh Yadav resolved the issue and now, all parties seem to be on track about backing Prasad.
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