MB Rajesh of the CPI(M) has been elected Speaker of the Kerala Assembly. In an election held on Tuesday morning, May 25, Rajesh won 96 of the 140 votes from MLAs in the Assembly, making himself the 23rd speaker of the Kerala Assembly.

 PC Vishnunath of the Indian National Congress had contested against Rajesh and secured 40 votes in the Assembly. Pro tem Speaker PTA Rahim refrained from voting. A former Member of Parliament of the CPI(M) in the 16th Lok Sabha, representing the Palakkad constituency, Rajesh gave up his post to contest in the Kerala Assembly elections from Thrithala. He contested against Congress’s two-time MLA VT Balram, and won the seat.  

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Opposition leader VD Satheesan accompanied Rajesh to the Speaker’s chair.  MB Rajesh  said that his victory belonged to AK Gopalan. Rajesh’s statement is a jibe against Balram, who in 2018 sparked a controversy by calling AK Gopalan, a Communist icon in Kerala, a pedophile. Balram had questioned AKG’s morals for falling in love with his second wife Susheela when she was just 12 or 13 years old, and that too while being married to his first wife.

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