Om Birla, the incumbent Lok Sabha Speaker, has achieved a remarkable feat by winning the Kota parliamentary seat on June 4, 2024. With a resounding margin of 41,139 votes, Birla has become the first presiding officer in 20 years to be re-elected to the Lower House of Parliament.
Breaking a Two-Decade Drought
The last Lok Sabha Speaker to secure re-election to the Lower House was P.A. Sangma, who served as the presiding officer during the 11th Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998. Sangma, then a member of the Congress party, was re-elected from Tura in Meghalaya in the 1998 Lok Sabha election.
Past Speakers’ Electoral Journeys
In 1999, G.M.C. Balayogi from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was elected as the Lok Sabha Speaker from Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh. Tragically, Balayogi passed away in a helicopter crash in 2002.
Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena succeeded Balayogi as the Lok Sabha Speaker. However, Joshi lost the 2004 Lok Sabha election from the Mumbai North Central constituency to Congress leader Eknath Gaikwad.
In 2004, Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI(M), who won the Bolpur seat, was elected as the Lok Sabha Speaker. However, Chatterjee retired from politics before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls due to differences with his party.
Meira Kumar of the Congress party won the Sasaram parliamentary seat in Bihar in 2009 and was elected as the Speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha. However, Kumar lost the elections in 2014 and 2019.
In 2014, Sumitra Mahajan of the BJP, the Lok Sabha member from Indore, was elected as the Speaker. Mahajan was not fielded by the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Birla’s Historic Achievement
In 2019, Om Birla, the BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Kota, was elected as the Speaker. In the 2024 elections, Birla defeated Prahlad Gunjal of the Congress party to retain the Kota parliamentary seat, thereby becoming the first Lok Sabha Speaker in two decades to be re-elected as a Member of Parliament.
Birla’s achievement underscores the trust and confidence placed in him by the people of Kota, and his re-election as an MP ensures his continued leadership and guidance in the Lok Sabha.
