Samikhsya Bureau
Om Birla, who was elected from Kota-Bundi Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan, has become the speaker of 17th Lok Sabha as an unanimous candidate. He succeeds veteran BJP leader and eight-time MP Sumitra Mahajan.
At 57, Birla is not the youngest Lok Sabha speaker as the honour had gone to GMC Balayogi of Telugu Desham Party when he became speaker in 1998 at the age of 46. But it is true that most Lok Sabha speakers have been between the age of 60 and 70.
But Birla is the only second time elected Lok Sabha member to be elected as speaker. All his predecessors since 1950s were elected to Lok Sabha at least thrice.
Birla, a surprise pick for the post of speaker, is not well known outside Rajasthan, where he was a three-term MLA before getting elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2014. As a parliamentarian, he does not have much experience either, but what tilted in the soft spoken politician’s favour is the fact that he shares a very good rapport with the two most powerful persons in BJP today — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah Shah.
Birla’s nomination for the post of speaker by the BJP conveys the message of generational change in the party, which also recently elected 59-year-old J.P. Nadda as its working president.
Born on 23 November 1962, Birla was a student of Commerce from the Government Commerce College, Kota and the Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer, Rising from the ranks, he started his journey from students’ politics.
From 1991 to 2003, he was a prominent leader of the BJP’s youth wing — Bharatiya Janata Yuba Morcha. He is a former Rajasthan president and national vice president of BJYM.
The low profile Birla’s social involvement and commitment to people’s cause especially during tough times was found reflected in his works during 2001 killer earthquake in Bhuj in Gujarat. He had coordinated with over 100 RSS volunteers and camped at Bhuj and helped the quake victims. Incidentally, that was also the time Modi got himself ‘involved’ in Gujarat affairs after his temporary political banishment from the home state due to his differences with party veteran and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel.
Birla’s first electoral success came at the age of 41 when he won from Kota South assembly seat in 2003 by defeating Congress heavyweight Shanti Dhariwal. He went on to win the seat again in 2008 and 2013. He was picked up by then Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje to serve as her parliamentary secretary.
Before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP gave Birla the ticket to contest Kota-Bundi Lok Sabha seat, which he won. He won the seat again with a huge margin of over 2.5 lakh defeating his Congress rival Ramnarayan Meena.
Those who know him say Birla has eyes for details and as a first timer MP in the 16th Lok Sabha, displayed his sincerity as he served various parliamentary committees including the Committee on Estimates, Committee on Petitions and the Standing Committee on Energy. He is also known for his welfare work among the differently abled people and women.
Birla has the experience of earning for himself the title of a ‘green speaker’ in future. He will also bring with him the experience of working for environment having anchored a major tree plantation programme in pollution-hit Kota under ‘Kota Green Campaign’ and is credited for involving people of all sections in the mission.
Birla also led a special campaign of distributing Tulsi sapling to every household in the town.
