The high chair in the 18th Lok Sabha is up for a contest, a rare, if also expected one.

For the first time in close to three decades, the Lok Sabha is set to witness an election for the Speaker’s post, thanks to the Narendra Modi government’s inflexible posturing and the rejuvenated Opposition’s decision not to shy away from a confrontation.

The INDIA bloc on Tuesday fielded the Congress’s eight-term Dalit MP, Kodikunnil Suresh, to take on the ruling NDA’s Om Birla, setting up an election that is bound to intensify the hostility between the Treasury and Opposition benches.

The Lok Sabha Speaker’s selection has mostly been a unanimous affair with the Treasury and Opposition benches endorsing a candidate proposed by the ruling side. The last time a confrontation of this kind had arisen was in 1998 when the NDA’s candidate, G.M.C. Balayogi, was pitted against P.A. Sangma of the Opposition.

The Opposition appeared to have been forced to go on a war path by the Modi-led NDA government’s studied attempt not to betray any signs of weakness despite the BJP falling way below the majority mark unlike the past two terms. The BJP also appeared to have gained confidence with two key allies, the TDP and the JDU, giving a free hand to Modi over the Speaker’s choice.

The Opposition said they were “compelled” to field their candidate after the government sought to reject their “offer” to concede the deputy Speaker’s post, a widely practised parliamentary convention.

“The INDIA ‘janbandhan’s’ offer was very simple. It will support the BJP candidate for Speaker but the deputy Speaker should be an INDIA ‘janbandhan’ nominee. This was a perfectly legitimate offer in keeping with parliamentary traditions,” Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said in a post on X, stressing how this offer was rejected, leading to the confrontation.

“The counter-offer by the ruling party — ‘Support us now on Speaker and we will discuss deputy Speaker later’ — was unacceptable given the non-biological PM’s track record,” Ramesh added.

The government accused the Opposition, particularly the Congress, of breaking the long-held parliamentary tradition of electing the Lok Sabha Speaker unanimously by trying to “dictate terms”.

“We had a conversation with all the floor leaders of the Opposition regarding the post of Speaker. The Speaker is not for a party, it is for the functioning of the House,” newly appointed parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters.

“The Congress set this condition that if they get the post of the deputy Speaker, they will support our candidate for the Speaker’s post. This give and take of posts of the Speaker and deputy Speaker is not right,” Rijiju added.

INDIA’s point of recalling Modi’s “track record” of not ceding any space to the Opposition carries weight since in the past two terms the BJP regime had not conceded the deputy Speaker’s post to the Opposition. While in the 17th Lok Sabha, the post of deputy Speaker had remained vacant for the entire term, as the Modi-led BJP had a brute majority of its own, in 2014, the post had gone to a “friendly Opposition”, the AIADMK.

This time too, the government appears in no mood to concede the post to the Opposition and is likely to give it to one of its allies, but not just yet. “This session is for the Speaker’s election. The deputy Speaker’s issue will come later,” a BJP leader said.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi, who appeared to be leading the Opposition’s renewed vigour boosted by the poll results, told reporters that defence minister Rajnath Singh had called Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday evening, seeking support for the Speaker’s election.

“The Opposition said we would support the Speaker, however, the convention is that the Opposition should get the deputy Speaker’s post. Rajnath Singh had said he would call back Khargeji over the offer but he is yet to return the call,” Rahul said, stressing that the government’s “intention” was clear. “PM Modi doesn’t want any constructive cooperation (from the Opposition),” he added.

Thereafter, a meeting between Modi and former Speaker Om Birla took place and the announcement was made that Birla would be repeated for the Speaker’s post. The Opposition promptly reacted and announced Suresh as their candidate. Suresh filed his nomination papers signed by other INDIA bloc members like the DMK, Samajwadi Party and the NCP.

This was followed up with a 20-minute conversation between Rahul and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee after which it was decided that the Trinamool Congress would send two MPs to Kharge’s meeting. Trinamool is yet to decide how it would vote on the motion to elect a Speaker.

The two MPs present at the meeting — Kalyan Banerjee and Derek O’Brien — have told the Congress that they will convey the Trinamool leadership’s decision by 9.30am on Wednesday.

The Speaker’s election will take place in the Lok Sabha with motions moved by both sides. Initially, it will be a voice vote but a division will take place if the Opposition presses for it. This was also discussed at the INDIA bloc meeting.

The NDA, with a strength of 293 compared to the Opposition’s 234, is set to win but the contest would sow the seeds of more such confrontations between the Treasury and Opposition in the new Lok Sabha.