New Delhi: With their increased strength in the House being the obvious reason, the NDA candidate looks poised to win the Lok Sabha speaker election which is scheduled to take place at 11 AM on Wednesday. 

Certain Opposition MPs including Kerala’s Shashi Tharoor won't be able to participate in the polls since they have not officially sworn in yet. 

In total, five among 232 MPs belonging to the INDIA alliance have not sworn in yet. 

The Lok Sabha MPs who are yet to swear in include Shashi Tharoor (Congress), TMC MPs Shatrughan Sinha, Deepak Adhikari and Nurul Islam, Afsal Anzari of the Samajwadi Party) and two other independent candidates.  

Meanwhile, ending uncertainty over Trinamool Congress’ stand in connection with the election to the post of Speaker of Lok Sabha, the party has decided to support Congress candidate Kodikkunnil Suresh. On Tuesday, TMC had said that the decision to field Kodikkunnil was unilateral and TMC’s opinion was not sought before taking a decision. 

NDA had already announced Om Birla, an MP from Rajasthan as their candidate for the post of speaker. The 18th Lok Sabha will witness a rare contest as both Om Birla and Kodikkunnil would test their strength on the floor of Lok Sabha. 

In other developments, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will occupy the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a letter about the decision has been sent to Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab by the Congress party.

The decision on Rahul Gandhi's appointment as the Leader of Opposition was announced soon after a meeting of the floor leaders of the INDIA bloc at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's residence.

AICC general secretary, Organisation, K C Venugopal told the media that CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi has written to the Pro-tem Speaker about the decision of the Congress party.

"Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson (Sonia Gandhi) wrote to Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab, informing him of the decision to appoint Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha," Venugopal told reporters after the meeting.

He said the decision on other appointments will be decided later. (With inputs from agencies)