Does INDIA Have A Chance? How Numbers Stack Up Ahead Of Speaker Election
NDTV
In the 543-member House, seven MPs have not taken oath yet and the Wayanad seat is vacant. This means 535 MPs are eligible to vote today, and 268 is the majority mark.
The stage is set for the election of a Lok Sabha Speaker after three decades. On one side is BJP's Om Birla, a three-time MP and the Speaker in the last Lok Sabha. His challenger is the Congress's eight-term MP K Suresh.
In the 543-member House, seven MPs have not taken oath yet and the Wayanad seat is vacant. This means 535 MPs are eligible to vote today, and 268 is the majority mark.
NDA candidate Mr Birla is the frontrunner and has the support of 293 MPs, including 240 of the BJP, TDP's 16 and JDU's 12. The YSR Congress has announced that its four MPs will support Mr Birla. That makes it 297. BJP sources said they are also reaching out to Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Independent MP Chandrashekhar Azad and Voice of the People Party's Ricky Andrew J Syngkon to take its tally to the 300 mark.
