N. Sakthan of the Congress has been elected Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Sakthan defeated his rival P. Aysha Potty of the CPI(M) by 74 to 66 votes. He replaces G. Karthikeyan, who died on March 7. Mr. Sakthan was Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and had resigned on Tuesday.
Pro tem Speaker Dominic Presentation announced Mr. Sakthan's election as Speaker after a polling lasting nearly 50 minutes. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan led Mr. Sakthan to the Chair immediately after the announcement of the poll result.
With the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) enjoying a comfortable majority in the Assembly, the outcome of the election was never in doubt. However, a minor element of interest was brought into the election with Kerala Congress (B), headed by R. Balakrishna Pillai, deciding to throw its lot with the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the party's lone legislator K.B. Ganesh Kumar voting for Ms. Potty.
Mr. Pillai had announced his party's decision to back the LDF nominee after discussions with CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. With the decision, the KC(B) also announced its exit from the UDF. Now it is left to the LDF State committee leadership to take a call on whether or not to accommodate the KC(B) in the Opposition alliance.
