BJP Leader Sumitra Mahajan Elected Speaker of Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Sumitra Mahajan, an eight-time BJP member of Parliament from Indore, has been elected the Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha.
She has been representing Indore since 1989 and is the longest serving woman parliamentarian.

Ms Mahajan, who has never lost a Lok Sabha election, was elected unanimously.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while congratulating the new Speaker, said, “It is inherent in your name (Sumitra), that you will have friendly and cordial relations with everyone.”

“There are 315 new members in the house. This means we can leave some old traditions behind and start some new traditions. We can take the great traditions of the past forward; this new blood has the opportunity to present a strong (picture of) democracy in front of the world,” he added.

Ms Mahajan had served as a former union minister of state in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government between 2002 and 2004 in an array of ministries including petroleum, communications and human resources development.

She is the second woman Speaker of Lok Sabha; Meira Kumar, who presided over the House for the last five years, was the first.