Sumitra Mahajan elected Lok Sabha speaker

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sumitra Mahajan gestures as she enters parliament in New Delhi on Friday. -- AFP

IANS/New Delhi

BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan, an eight-time member of parliament, was Friday unanimously elected Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha. The name of Mahajan, MP from Indore, was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and seconded by BJP patriarch LK Advani, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and many others. Earlier, pro-tem speaker Kamal Nath took up the motion of election of the speaker. He said he had received 19 notices for the speaker’s election. Then Prime Minister Modi got up to propose Mahajan's name for speaker. Mahajan is the second woman speaker of the Lok Sabha after Meira Kumar, who as speaker presided over the 15th Lok Sabha. After Mahajan's election, Modi said the election of the speaker has taken place according to the highest traditions of parliament. "It is a matter of pride that in the world's biggest democracy, a woman is the speaker. Your guidance will be valuable," the prime minister said in Hindi.

He also thanked all members of the house for unanimously electing Mahajan the speaker and following the tradition of the house.