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Balayogi unanimously elected Speaker of 13th Lok Sabha

Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi, Telugu Desam Party member from Andhra Pradesh, was today unanimously re-elected Speaker of the 13th Lok Sabha.

A lawyer by profession, he is also an agriculturist and trade unionist and was higher education minister in his home state.

Sixteen nominations, including one proposed and seconded by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Lok Sabha Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi respectively had been filed for his election.

Vajpayee moved the first motion -- ''that Shri G M C Balayogi, a member of the House, be chosen as the Speaker of the House.'' Sonia seconded the motion.

Similar motions were proposed by Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, TDP leader K Yerran Naidu and others.

After he was declared elected by the Pro-tem Speaker Indrajit Gupta, Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi escorted Balayogi to the chair.

When Balayogi was elected to the high office on March 24 last year, many had been sceptical about his ability to stem the falling standards of the House over the past few years.

For apart from being inexperienced, he did not know Hindi which is necessary for controlling a House which often becomes unruly. Expectedly, many compared him with his predecessor Purno A Sangma, who had managed to run the House successfully because of his humour and ability for quick repartee.

But Balayogi, the youngest member of Parliament and the first dalit to be elected to the post, soon proved his detractors wrong.

In fact, the conduct of the House during the sessions in 1998-99 showed that he had come to grips with his onerous task. He represented India at the Inter Parliamentary Union.

He has addressed parliaments in Iraq, Russia and Turkey and has visited Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, France, Geneva, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Maldives, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Forty-eight-year-old Balayogi joined politics less than 20 years ago in 1982 when the Telugu Desam Party was founded. He was elected to the tenth Lok Sabha from Amalapuram in 1991.

Born on October 1, 1951, in Yedurulanka village in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, he completed his post-graduation in law from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. A member of the Kakinada Bar Association, he has practised in the Kakinada court. He was selected as a first class magistrate in 1985 and even underwent training for two months, but resigned to continue his legal practice.

He won the assembly by-election in September 1996 from the Mummidivaram constituency and became the minister for higher education.

Balayogi is married to Vijaya Kumari and has one son and three daughters.

UNI

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