Meira files for post of LS Speaker

New Delhi: Five-term Lok Sabha MP Meira Kumar on Tuesday became the consensus candidate of the ruling UPA and the opposition BJP for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker.

Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee led a UPA delegation to submit Kumar's nomination papers to Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary for the election to the Speaker's post scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

64-year-old Kumar, who will be the first woman to head the Lok Sabha, is expected to be elected unopposed as Mukherjee submitted 13 sets of nomination papers which

included a set signed by Leader of the Opposition L K Advani and seconded by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj.

"We have filed 13 sets of nomination papers. The first set was signed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and I have seconded it," Mukherjee told reporters at Parliament House.

He said the Leader of the Opposition L K Advani had also signed a set of nomination papers.

Among others who filed nomination papers included Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel of NCP, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shailendra Singh Yadav of SP, Arjun Charan Sethi and B Mahtab of BJD, Lalu Prasad, Farooq Abdullah and E Ahamed.

Besides Meira Kumar, Pawar, Abdullah, T R Baalu, P KBansal, V Narayansamy were present when the nomination papers were submitted.

Historic moment for women

Meira Kumar termed her nomination for the post as a "historic and an overwhelming" moment.

"It is a historic moment. It is a very overwhelming moment for me," Kumar told reporters after the UPA filed nomination papers on her behalf for the post of Speaker.

She said leaders of all political parties had proposed her name for the coveted post.

"It is a historic moment as a woman has been considered for this important and august post," Kumar said.

A diplomat-turned-politician and Congress' dalit face, Kumar is the daughter of former Deputy Prime Minister late Jagjivan Ram.

The 64-year-old Kumar quit the Indian Foreign Service in 1985 to join politics.

Soft-spoken Kumar first joined the government as a deputy minister in the P V Narasimha Rao ministry and was made a minister with a Cabinet rank when UPA took over the reins of power from NDA after the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

The decision to nominate her for the Speaker's post comes just two days after she took charge of the Water Resources Ministry. She then resigned as Union minister.