Puducherry, June 15(BPNS)

BJP leader and first-term MLA, Embalam R Selvam is all set to become the new Speaker of the Puducherry legislative assembly unopposed. The DMK, Congress opposition did not file any nomination paper against his candidature till the deadline ended on Tuesday afternoon.

The election for the Speaker will be held on Wednesday. The Proterm Speaker, K Lakshminarayanan will announce Emabalam R Speaker as the Speaker when the assembly commences at 9 am on Wednesday as there is no opposition to his candidature.

Selvam is another first-term MLA to become Speaker in the Puducherry assembly after Congress leader V.P. Sivakozhunthu in the previous assembly. This is the first major post held by any BJP MLA in the Puducherry Assembly.

It may be noted that ever since the swearing-in of All India NR Congress leader N Rangasamy as the Chief Minister of Puducherry on May 7, there was no confirmation on the formation of the new cabinet after there were differences between NDA allies AINRC and the BJP.

The AINRC and BJP has entered into a consensus with the former having 4 ministers including the Chief minister while BJP will have 2. BJP will be given the Speaker post and the AINRC , Deputy Speaker.

In the 30 member assembly, AINRC won 10 seats, BJP 6 seats, DMK 6 and Congress 2 and Independents a whopping 6 seats. Of the six independents, one joined with the BJP. The saffron party also nominated 3 BJP leaders as legislators and this took the number of seats of the BJP to 10.

The DMK has charged that the BJP is trying to capture power in Puducherry through the backdoor with the party senior leader and Tamil Nadu Water Resources minister, Duraimurugan stating the BJP is into nefarious designs in Puducherry which was strongly refuted by both the AINRC and the BJP.