Senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan was on Friday elected Speaker of the 16 Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Pro-tem Speaker G Sudhakaran presided over the session.
Chief Minister V D Satheesan cast the first vote.
Radhakrishnan was the candidate of the ruling Congress-led UDF, which enjoys a comfortable majority with 102 members in the 140-member Assembly.
The opposition CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front, which has 35 members in the House, had fielded senior CPI(M) leader and former minister A C Moideen for the post.
Both the LDF and, for the first time in Assembly history, the BJP had fielded candidates for the Speaker election.
BJP’s candidate was B B Gopakumar.
The BJP has three members in the Assembly this time. B B Gopakumar submitted his nomination papers to Assembly Secretary Shaji C Baby along with fellow BJP members Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V Muraleedharan.
The date for the Deputy Speaker election has not yet been announced.
The Assembly will not meet from May 23 to May 28.
The Governor’s policy address is scheduled for May 29. Discussions on the motion of thanks to the policy address will take place from June 1 to June 3.
State BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar earlier described the party’s decision to contest the Speaker election as a “historic moment” for the BJP in Kerala.
“For the first time in Kerala’s political history, the BJP will have a candidate in the election for this post. Gopakumar is the BJP candidate, and his name will be proposed by me and Muraleedharan,” he told reporters.
