The 18th Lok Sabha is all set to witness a rare contest for the Speaker post on Wednesday between the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Om Birla and Kodikunnil Suresh of the Congress after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and the INDIA group of Opposition parties failed to arrive at a consensus.

On Tuesday, Congress leader K.C. Venugopal and DMK’s T.R. Baalu from the Opposition and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister J.P. Nadda had met at Mr. Singh’s office in Parliament to evolve a consensus.

However, with both sides sticking to their position, the two Opposition leaders walked out, with Mr. Venugopal accusing the government of not following the “convention” of an Opposition candidate for the Deputy Speaker’s position.

The decision to field Mr. Birla, a third term BJP MP from Kota in Rajasthan, underlined the BJP-led NDA’s theme continuity as he was the Speaker of the previous Lok Sabha.