Om Birla is Lok Sabha Speaker for 2nd term: 10 things to know about him

Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved motion for the election of Birla.

BJP nominee Om Birla was elected as the Lok Sabha Speaker once again  pn Wednesday. The NDA candidate was poised to retain the Speaker’s post as the numbers were in favour of the ruling coalition.

Birla is the first Lok Sabha speaker in over two decades to be re-elected to the Lower House.

•Birla retained the Kota Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan by defeating Congress's Prahlad Gunjal by a margin of over 41,000 votes. He is the first Lok Sabha speaker in 20 years to be re-elected to the Lower House.

• Born on November 23, 1962, in Kota, Birla started his political journey as a student leader. He has  also been elected to Rajasthan assembly for three consecutive terms in 2003, 2008 and 2013.

•During his tenure, Parliament withstood the waves of Covid-19, passed landmark legislation such as the women’s reservation bill and scrapped Article 370.

• A prominent Vaishya face in the BJP’sstate unit, Birla has a background of managing cooperative societies in Rajasthan and Gujarat.  He had been the chairperson of the Rajasthan Rajya Sahakari Upbhokta Sangh from 1992 to 1995 and vice-president of the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India in New Delhi.

• For 12 years since 1991, Om Birla was a key leader in Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha as president at state level first and then the vice-president at the national level.

• Birla’s association with BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi started even before the latter came to power in Gujarat. ]Birla sought votes in the Prime Minister’s name during his 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign.

• Birla succeeded eight-term MP Sumitra Mahajan as the Speaker, a post traditionally held by senior MPs.

• In his tenure, a total of 2,910 members participated in the law-making process — the highest in the last four Lok Sabhas. The Parliament Library, the second-largest in India, was opened to the public from 17 August 2022 while rare and old footage of parliamentary proceedings were uploaded.

•Birla was the first Speaker to provide MPs clippings of their speeches to help them circulate it on social media.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed Birla's name, supported by all major opposition parties, including Congress, TMC, DMK, and BJD. The YSRCP and TDP also supported Birla's candidature.