INDIA bloc will try to ensure support for TDP if it contests LS speaker's post: Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said all partners of the opposition INDIA bloc will try to ensure support for the ruling ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) if it fields a candidate for the Lok Sabha speaker’s election.

Talking to reporters here, Raut claimed the Lok Sabha speaker’s election will be crucial and if the BJP gets the post, it will break the government-supporting parties like the TDP, JD(U) and the political outfits of Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary.

“We have the experience that BJP betrays the people who support it,” Raut claimed.

“I hear the TDP wants to field its candidate. If that happens, INDIA bloc partners will discuss the issue and will try to ensure that all the INDIA alliance partners extend support to the TDP,” he said.

The opposition should get the deputy speaker’s post as per rule, the Rajya Sabha member said.

He claimed the NDA government is not a stable regime.

Asked about recent statements made by some Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders on the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls, Raut said it is good if the RSS wants to correct “mistakes” of the past.

“We are keeping a watch over the unfolding developments,” he said.

During a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance in the Central Hall of Parliament on June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected as leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party, the BJP Parliamentary Party and the leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha.

Raut claimed Modi was elected leader in the NDA parliamentary meeting and not in the BJP parliamentary party meet.

“The BJP parliamentary party meeting did not take place. If the issue of leadership had come in the BJP parliamentary meeting, the result may have been different. So, Modi was elected leader in the NDA parliamentary meeting. This is a serious matter,” he claimed.