By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday decided to nominate senior tribal leader from Jharkhand, Karia Munda, for the post of deputy speaker in the Lok Sabha, which by tradition is offered to the opposition.
BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters after a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board that Munda had “vast parliamentary experience” and was among the senior MPs of the party.
Jaitley added: “Considering his experience we thought he is the most appropriate person (for the post).”
Munda, 72, is a six-time MP and was a minister in the Morarji Desai government (1977-79) and also in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry. He was earlier a legislator in Bihar and later in Jharkhand.
The party, which was earlier mulling the name of Madhya Pradesh’s Sumitra Mahajan for the post, changed its mind after the Congress propped up Dalit woman MP Meira Kumar from Bihar for the speaker’s post.