In Lok Sabha Speaker Election, BJP Gets 4-MP Boost From Southern Party
NDTV
Om Birla, Speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha also, faces the Congress' eight-time MP from Kerala's Mavelikara, Kodikunnil Suresh, who is the candidate of the joint INDIA opposition bloc.
Ex-Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party will support BJP MP Om Birla in Wednesday's election for the Lok Sabha Speaker's post, sources told NDTV Tuesday evening.
The YSRCP - thumped by arch-rivals TDP in the general election - has only four MPs in the Lower House. The party swept the southern state in the 2019 poll, winning 22 of 25 seats, but a repeat this year proved impossible; Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, which also won the Assembly election, picked up 16 seats and its allies - the BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party - won five between them.
As such the offer of support may not be significant - since Mr Birla and the BJP already have the numbers to ensure victory - but it underlines a recent trend.
