4.1.14

Somewhere in Delhi....

After receiving a vote of confidence, Aam Aadmi Party crossed a crucial hurdle by getting its candidate Jangpura MLA M S Dhir elected to the post of speaker of Delhi legislative assembly.
It was the first time that the speaker was not a consensus candidate. BJP’s candidate for speaker five-time MLA Jagdish Mukhi lost to Dhir who got 37 votes with the backing of Congress, one JD(U) and an independent MLA.
The protem speaker, Mateen Ahmed, conducted a voice vote twice following objections by BJP MLAs. Mukhi got the support of 32 MLAs including that of alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). The house has 70 members.
Immediately after his election to the post, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Harsh Vardhan greeted the new speaker. “I congratulate you heartily and hope that you will keep the prestige and tradition of the assembly intact,” Vardhan said.
Earlier, Congress had issued a whip to its MLAs to support the AAP candidate. “We issued a whip to our MLAs to support the AAP candidate,” Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president and Gandhi Nagar MLA Arvinder Singh said.
Immediately after election of the speaker, BJP MLAs rose from their seats to say that the speaker could have been nominated as a consensus candidate had the Aam Aadmi Party done the courtesy of discussing the matter with it or had Congress made its stand known in advance.
MLAs Sahib Singh Chauhan and Mukhi cited the tradition of a consensus candidate as speaker as a gesture of bonhomie. 

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