LS pro-tem Speaker issue: Cong should make Kodikunnil Suresh LoP, says BJP

A day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Congress slammed the Centre over the pro-tem Speaker appointment issue, the BJP on Saturday hit back by asking the grand old party to make Kodikunnil Suresh as the Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha.

Both Vijayan and the Congress have claimed that not appointing Suresh, the senior most MP in the Lok Sabha, as the pro-tem Speaker is a violation of the conventions followed in the past.

Hitting back, BJP state chief K Surendran said that the Congress should protest against the Centre's decision by making Suresh the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

He also termed the Congress MP from Mavelikara constituency as "brilliant", a member of the Dalit community and a member from Kerala -- "the family home of Rahul (Gandhi) and Priyanka (Gandhi) today and tomorrow Vadra's".

"At any rate, this man (Suresh) should be made the leader of the opposition. This is how the Congress party should express its protest against him not bei