Thiruvananthapuram: Ponnani MLA P Sreeramakrishnan has been elected Speaker of the 14th Assembly.
In the polling held Friday morning, Sreeramakrishnan polled 92 votes against 46 of UDF candidate V.P. Sajeendran in a House of 140 members with the LDF having a declared strength of 91 against 47 of the Opposition.
In a surprising development, the CPI-M leader polled two additional votes even as Sajeendran secured one vote less.
Pro tem Speaker S Sarma did not vote while the vote of Independent PC George was invalidated due to technical reasons. That left only 138 valid votes which were polled through secret ballot.
The voting pattern suggests the lone BJP member, O. Rajagopal, may have voted for the LDF.
The UDF had earlier declared that they did not want the votes of the BJP. "We do not want either the vote of the lone BJP MLA O Rajagopal or that of P C George, who had contested as independent candidate in the May 16 Assembly polls,” Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala had said, adding, “the UDF will function as a strong opposition both inside and outside the Assembly."