Gujarat to elect deputy-speaker as Vasava down with swine flu

The Gujarat Assembly would be holding election for the post of deputy speaker on Tuesday, as Speaker Ganpat Vasava has contracted swine flu.
The budget session of the Assembly is going to start from Monday. Vasava was admitted to a hospital in Surat yesterday after being diagnosed with swine flu.
Forms for the election are to be filed on Monday, while the election will take place on Tuesday, said the Assembly secretariat.
According to BJP sources, party MLA Neemaben Acharya, who represents Anjar in Kutch district, was being considered as a possible nominee, though there were other options too.
Congress demanded that as per the tradition, the post should go to the opposition.

"There is a tradition in the Lok Sabha and many state Assemblies that the deputy speaker belongs to the opposition. It was a tradition in Gujarat too, but BJP discontinued it," said the Leader of Opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela.
"We demand that the post should be given to Congress. If the BJP government insists that one of its MLAs should get the post, then we will put up our candidate and force it to hold an election," he said.
Vaghela also demanded that this time the deputy speaker should be from a Dalit community.