Speaker's Election: TMC decouples from INDIA bloc over division of votes
INDIA bloc did not press for division of votes but Trinamool Congress said the division was not allowed despite its members pressing for it.
The resolution to elect Om Birla as Speaker was put to vote after his name was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other NDA allies. But Congress and other INDIA bloc allies did not press for division of votes.
Protem Speaker Bhatruhari Mahtab clarified on the floor of the House that the Opposition was not «pressing for division». Later, Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh said on X: «INDIA parties exercised their democratic right and moved motions in support of Kodikunnil Suresh… Voice vote was taken. Thereafter, INDIA parties could have insisted on division. They did not do so. This is because they wanted a spirit of consensus and cooperation to prevail, a spirit singularly lacking in the actions of the PM and the NDA.»
Trinamool, which had sulked a day earlier for not having been consulted over fielding Suresh as the Opposition candidate, said it had pressed for division of votes. It said the fact that the division was not allowed showed that the ruling coalition lacked the numbers. Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee told reporters outside Parliament that, according to the rules, division has to be allowed even if a single member demands it. «The rule states that if any member of the House asks for division, the protem Speaker has to allow it. You can clearly see and hear from the footage of the Lok Sabha that several members of the Opposition sought and asked for a
