NEW DELHI: Congress leader Meira Kumar yesterday filed her nomination for the post of Lok Sabha speaker. Her nomination, proposed by United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress in the house Pranab Mukherjee, leader of opposition L.K. Advani of the Bharatiya Janata Party and most other parliamentary party leaders, is likely to be unanimous.
Meira Kumar, accompanied by Mukherjee, submitted her nomination at the Lok Sabha secretary-general’s office. “Meira’s nomination for the post of Lok Sabha speaker has been submitted,” Lok Sabha Secretary-General P.D.T. Achary said. Overwhelmed by history being created with her being the first woman speaker, Meira seemed hardly concerned about a challenging task of handling aggressive politicians awaiting her.
“It is a historic moment for me, It is a very overwhelming moment for me,” 64-year-old Meira told reporters after nomination papers were filed. “It is a historic moment as a woman has been considered for this important and august post,” she said.
Meira, a Dalit leader and five-time MP, will become the first woman in the coveted post. She was chosen for the post by the UPA on Monday and resigned from the post of union minister of water resources. The formality of the election is slated for today.
“We have submitted the nomination. Her (Meira Kumar) named was proposed by Soniaji and I seconded it,” Mukherjee told reporters after Meira filed her nomination.
Meira is a former diplomat who left the Foreign Service to fight the cause of Dalits. Daughter of Babu Jagjivan Ram, India’s independence movement leader who rose to become the defense minister and deputy prime minister of India, the MP from Sasaram in Bihar was handpicked by Sonia to take on the mantle of speaker, a challenging task for a woman to manage a house of 545 MPS that is prone to erupt into chaos and disorder at the slightest provocation.
Meira started her public life early. At the age of 22 she became chairperson of the Congress party’s national drought relief committee during the century’s worst drought in 1967. The committee launched a family adoption scheme under which drought affected people were adopted by affluent families.
— With input from agencies
