New Delhi: The process for India to get its first woman Lok Sabha speaker is set to get underway on Tuesday. Congress MP Meira Kumar will file her nominations, thus also paving the way for the first Dalit woman to hold the high constitutional post.
Though the government is yet to make a formal announcement, 64-year-old Kumar, who resigned as Union Minister for Water Resources on Sunday, told PTI that she has been nominated for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker by the UPA by consensus on Monday.
Madam Speaker
It will be 'Madam Speaker' for the first time in the Lok Sabha which boasts of a record number of members of the fairer sex this time.
Meira Kumar, set to be the next Lok Sabha Speaker, will be creating history by becoming the first Dalit woman leader to occupy the coveted post.
Unlike 'Mr Speaker Sir' being addressed to the Chair in the Lower House, the new presiding officer will be called 'Madam Speaker'.
In fact, it is woman power galore in the new House with Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi leading the group.
Besides, the 59 women members comprise the high and mighty of politics like Mamta Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, whose party with 19 members is the second largest in the ruling alliance after the Congress.
A record of sorts
It will be a record of sorts when Meira Kumar becomes the first woman Speaker, as both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will have Presiding Officers formerly belonging to the Indian Foreign Service (IFS).
Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari is a career diplomat and belonged to 1961 IFS cadre. Kumar, of 1973 batch, had resigned her IFS job to join politics.
Kumar, set to be the next Lok Sabha Speaker, will be creating history by becoming the first Dalit woman leader to occupy the coveted post.
Unlike 'Mr Speaker Sir' as the Chair was till now addressed in the Lower House, the new presiding officer – the daughter of veteran leader and former deputy prime minister
Jagjivan Ram -- will be called 'Madam Speaker'.
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