Meira Kumar likely to be LS Speaker

Meira Kumar is only a day old as the Water Resources Minister, but she could well be the Congress' surprise choice for the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker.

Daughter of Babu Jagjivan Ram, Meira carries the right political credentials of being the first woman and a Dalit to be a Speaker. Meira started her political career nearly 25 years ago after resigning from the Indian Foreign Service.

The other name that's being discussed is Rajasthan MP Girija Vyas who was the former chairperson of the National Commission for Women.

A meeting of the Congress core committee, which was attended by party president Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony was convened to discuss names for the post of Speaker in the 15th Lok Sabha. The meeting lasted for 30 minutes.

Ahead of the meeting, it seemed that Kishore Chandra Deo, a five-term Congress MP from Araku in Andhra Pradesh, was to be the front-runner. But a court case that has questioned his Scheduled Tribe status may have weighed against him.

The last time Congress held the prestigious post of the Lok Sabha Speaker was in 1991 when its nominee Shivraj Patil was the Speaker. Since then, coalitions pressures have never really allowed the leading party of a ruling coalition to hold this post. Now, the Congress is all set to buck this trend.