Prospects of six-term MP from Andhra Pradesh V Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo becoming speaker of the Lok Sabha has brightened with the Congress leadership on Wednesday announcing a jumbo list of ministers to be inducted in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s Cabinet.
Sources in the Congress acknowledged that the way was now virtually paved for Deo?s elevation to the privileged post, though they admitted that his chances could still get upset as there were a couple of contenders still in the fray.
Senior leaders Girija Vyas from Rajasthan and Dr Chintamohan from Andhra, both five-term MPs, have also emerged as potential candidates for the post, which is likely to be finalised by the party leadership on Saturday. The names of these two leaders, along with Deo?s do not figure in the list of ministers announced on Wednesday.
The possibility of these two names doing rounds in the backdrop of controversy surrounding Deo?s tribal status, which has been challenged by a local lawyer from Araku, the parliamentary constituency that Deo represents. The lawyer, Regi Maheshwara Rao, has said he has sent a written appeal to President Pratibha Patil asking that Deo be prevented from being sworn in as an MP as he is not a tribal but a minor royal and a Kshatriya by caste.
Dismissing the charges, Deo, however, maintained that Rao was a habitual petitioner, whose allegations had already been proved wrong by an inquiry of the district administration. ??This issue of my tribal status was first addressed in 1977 when I contested my first election and submitted an ST certificate,?? Deo told FE.
The senior leader, who headed the privileges committee in the 14th Lok Sabha, had submitted to the district administration documents dating back to 108 years, which assert his tribal status, belonging to the Konda Dora tribe.
Deo, in fact had placed the very documents supporting his tribal status to the district administration as early as in 1999 which stated that he was a descendent of Vyricherla Sanyasi Dora, founder of the Kurupam estate in Viziangaram district in north eastern Andhra Pradesh.
However, he does not deny that the term Kshatriya may have cropped up in some documents although he has an explanation for it.