Congress ups ante against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla; collects signatures for his removal

New Delhi: Congress on Monday upped the ante on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla by initiating an exercise to seek his removal from office with the main Opposition party starting to collect signatures of MPs, accusing him of partisan behaviour.

A three-page notice highlighting four points - Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi not being allowed to mention Naravane's book, allowing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey to quote books and attack Congress, suspension of eight MPs and claims of MPs preparing to attack the Prime Minister - is being prepared and a number of Congress MPs have signed it, they said.

Sources said the move came as an "expression of accumulated frustration" over Birla's handling of affairs in Lok Sabha with regard to Opposition, even as they expressed hope that it would act as a "corrective" motion.

However, the Opposition did not submit the notice during the day, as Birla held discussions with Rahul and other senior Opposition leaders to end the logjam in the House.

The Opposition has been up in arms after Rahul could not speak in Lok Sabha during the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address as he was disallowed from referring to the unpublished memoirs of Gen M M Naravane.

While Congress claimed that a large number of MPs have already signed the notice, sources said Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party were not very enthusiastic about the move, as they intend to corner the government during the general discussion on Budget.

Parties like NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) were also not keen about the plan, which was mooted by the Congress at a meeting of Opposition floor leaders.

Sources said if the government and the Speaker fail to accede to the demand for allowing Rahul to speak on Tuesday, Congress may reach out to allies to join the bandwagon against Birla. The notice will be given under Article 94-C of the Constitution.

If the notice is accepted and comes up in the House, it will be the fourth time that a Speaker will face a resolution seeking removal. The resolutions against GV Mavlankar in 1954 and Balram Jakhar in 1987 were defeated but the one on Hukkam Singh in 1966 was not taken up as the motion did not get the support of a minimum of 50 MPs.

In December 2024, the Opposition had submitted a notice seeking removal of Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice President, who was also Rajya Sabha Chairman. They had also submitted one against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh in September 2020. Both the notices were not accepted.