Congress MLA N Shakthan elected Kerala speaker

Congress legislator and and deputy speaker N Shakthan was elected as the news speaker of the Kerala Assembly on Thursday. He defeated CPI (M) candidate Aysha Potti.

Election to the post of the Speaker became necessary after the death of the incumbent speaker G Karthikeyan last week.

The Kerala Congress (B), which had a legislator in the Assembly, had left the Congress-led United Democratic Front on the eve of the election. But that did not affect the prospects of the Congress candidate. Shakthan got 74 votes in the 14-strong assembly.

Shakthan belongs to Nadar community, a powerful segment in Southern Kerala, particularly Thiruvananthapuram district.

Source:: Indian Express