Shanimol Osman elected Kerala Assembly Deputy Speaker, 4th woman to hold post

Congress leader Shanimol Osman was elected Deputy Speaker of the Kerala Assembly on Tuesday, defeating LDF candidate Muhammed Muhsin.

Shanimol secured 99 votes while Muhsin received 34 votes. The three BJP MLAs abstained from voting, while Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan did not cast his vote, in keeping with convention.

Shanimol Osman is the fourth woman to be elected as the Deputy Speaker in the Kerala assembly. K O Aysha Bai was the first Deputy speaker (1957-1959). A Nafeesath Beevi became the second woman deputy speaker (1960-1964). In 1987, Bhargavi Thankappan was elected as the Deputy Speaker.

The UDF, which has 102 members in the 140-member Assembly, was expected to secure 101 votes after excluding the Speaker. However, Shanimol received 99 votes, leaving it unclear which members were absent or did not vote. The Speaker did not specify who was absent during the proceedings.

Similarly, the LDF, which was expected to receive 35 votes, secured 34 votes.

The BJP had not fielded a candidate for the election and stayed away from the voting process.

Shanimol represents the Aroor constituency in Alappuzha district, while Muhsin is the MLA from Pattambi in Palakkad district.

The election took place during the first session of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly, which commenced on May 21. Earlier, on May 22, senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan was elected Speaker with 101 votes.