Lesser known facts about new Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

The NDA candidate for the Lok Sabha Speaker's post, Om Birla from Rajasthan's Kota constituency, has got the support ten political parties including Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) for his candidature

Om Birla (56), the NDA nominee for the Lok Sabha Speaker, is a second term BJP MP from Rajasthan and was a legislator for three terms in his state where he was also a Parliamentary Secretary in the Vasundhara Raje government more than 15 years ago. A social worker and an agriculturist, the low-profile leader has been active in politics from his student days and served as state unit president of the Bhartiya Yuva Morcha in 1991 and as vice-president at the national level.

Om Birla was elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from Kota where he defeated Ramnarain Meena from Congress by over 2.5 lakh votes. He was elected to the last Lok Sabha also from the same seat. He was born on 23 November 1962 and completed his Masters in Commerce from Government Commerce College, Kota and the Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer.

He defeated Shanti Dhariwal in 2003, of the Congress by a margin of 10,101 votes, to win his first assembly election from Kota South. Subsequently, Om Birla won the Assembly polls in 2008 and 2013. He was the Parliamentary Secretary (MoS rank) in the Vasundhara Raje government from 2003 to 2008. In the last Lok Sabha, Om Birla was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy in Parliament and member of Committee on Petitions and Consultative Committee for Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

The 56-year-old NDA nominee has also been in charge of the organisational revamp when the then Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was drawing flak from the public in 2018. J.P Nadda, working president of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), was the president of the BJP youth wing when Birla was the vice-president, and both are believed to have worked closely. He has also initiated several social welfare programs, including launching Paridhan in 2012, an initiative which engages in distributing books and clothes for the poor and opened several blood donation camps. He has stated medicine banks which supply medicines free of cost and initiated free meal programs for the poor.

With inputs from ANI

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