New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS): After the Rajya Sabha set into motion the process for the election of the Deputy Chairman, the Congress demanded that the Lok Sabha should also elect a Deputy Speaker. The post has been lying vacant since the 2019 general elections.

Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary has written to Speaker Om Birla and said that according to the constitutional mandate the post of the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha should be filled either by "election or consensus " as early as possible after a new Lok Sabha is constituted.

Chaudhary said by convention the post of the Deputy Speaker is offered to the Opposition.

A year has elapsed since the general election but the Lok Sabha still does not have a Deputy Speaker while the Rajya Sabha is about to elect its Deputy Chairman, he said. Sir, it is an opportune moment to elect the Deputy Speaker of the Lower House also, Chaudhary added.

He requested the Speaker that the Deputy Speaker should be elected during the Monsoon session.

Parliament is scheduled to convene from September 14. In the Lok Sabha the BJP-led NDA has a majority and in case of a contest the BJP candidate will be elected, but here the Congress is talking of convention. In the last Lok Sabha AIADMK leader M Thambidurai was the Deputy Speaker. The BJP did not give it to the Opposition but to a supporting party.

But in 2004, NDA's Charanjit Singh Atwal and in 2009, Kariya Munda were elected Deputy Speaker when the UPA was in power.