Unhappy to break tradition: Kamal Nath on Deputy Speaker election

Asserting that he is sad on breaking of the tradition in the appointment of Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday blamed BJP for starting the tussle of the post.

Addressing media after the conclusion of the first session of the 15th legislative assembly, he said, "I am unhappy that we have to go against the tradition. I had requested opposition to set an example in front of the newly elected members. But since last 10-12 days, the attempts were made to get MLAs of other parties on their side. The tradition that has been in existence is of having the Speaker from the ruling party and deputy speaker from the opposition. However, BJP filed the nomination for speaker post against the norm. They thought that they will able to elect their own speaker nominee. They (BJP) believed there will be a rift in Congress and that's why they filed nomination papers. Since they started this, we decided we will fight election for the post of deputy speaker."

Reportedly, amid noisy protests by opposition and after repeated House adjournments, two times MLA from Lanji assembly seat Heena Likhiram Kavre was elected Deputy Speaker through a voice vote.

Giving a veiled warning to the BJP, he further added, "We wanted that today's session of assembly must run smoothly. But they are afraid of being exposed. I want to tell BJP that a lot of exposes are going to happen, this is only a trailer."

During the last assembly elections, Madhya Pradesh saw a nail-biting fight, where the Congress managed to bag 114 seats out of a total of 230, while the BJP got 109 seats, BSP 2, Samajwadi Party 1 and Independents 4 in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

Soon after, Kamal Nath was sworn in as the Chief Minister, ousting three-time chief minister and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan.