Puducherry, Jun 16 (IANS): BJP leader and first-time MLA Embalam R. Selvam is all set to become the new Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly unopposed, as the opposition DMK-Congress did not field any candidate by the Tuesday afternoon deadline.

The election for the Speaker was to be held on Wednesday.

Protem Speaker K. Lakshminarayanan is expected to proclaim Selvam as the Speaker, when the Assembly session commences at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, as there is no rival candidate.

Selvam will be the second first-time lawmake to become Speaker in the Puducherry Assembly after Congress' V.P. Sivakozhunthu in the previous house. This is the first major post held by any BJP MLA in the Puducherry Assembly.

Ever since the swearing-in of All India NR Congress leader N. Rangasamy as the Chief Minister on May 7, there was no confirmation on the formation of the new cabinet after there were differences between the AINRC and the BJP.

The AINRC and BJP have now entered into a consensus with the former having four ministers including the Chief Minister while BJP will have two. The BJP will be given the Speaker's post and the AINRC, the Deputy Speaker's post.

In the 30-member assembly, the AINRC won 10 seats, the BJP 6, the DMK 6, the Congress 2 and Independents a whopping 6 seats. Of the six Independents, one joined with the BJP. The saffron party also nominated three BJP leaders as legislators and this took the number of seats of the BJP to 10.