Thiruvananthapuram: The name of the new Speaker will be announced only after the Lok Sabha polls and till then, Deputy Speaker N. Sakthan Nadar will officiate. According to a top Congress legislator, incumbent Speaker G. Karthikeyan will step down once his appointment as KPCC chief is announced in the next few days. A Cabinet reshuffle is on the cards after the Lok Sabha elections.
The current session of the Assembly resumed on Monday after a brief break on Jan 9. “Once the KPCC chief’s name is announced, Karthikeyan will step down from the Speaker post as he would have to pep up the party for the Lok Sabha elections.
This way, the UDF Government can also appease the Vaikunda Swami Dharma Pracharana Sabha (VSDP) community by promoting Nadar to the post of acting Speaker”, said the Congress leader.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had already told the media that a Cabinet reshuffle was on the cards. Usually, the KPCC decides on who should be the Speaker and then the Congress high command approves it. Right from the time Karthikeyan was projected as the KPCC chief, VSDP chairman Vishnupuram Chandrasekharan had been demanding a key post for the Nadar community.
“We are not at all happy with this development as we want Nadar to be made a minister. In fact, a meeting of our representatives is being convened at Thiruvananthapuram on Jan 23 where seven ministers and LDF leaders will also be taking part. We will decide our future course of action then”, he said.
