Thiruvananthapuram: Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Kottayam MLA and senior Congress leader, has been elected Speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly with 101 votes. 35 members supported AC Moideen, while 3 backed BB Gopakumar.

A total of 139 members cast their votes. As the Pro Tem Speaker, G Sudhakaran did not vote. Chief Minister VD Satheesan and Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan escorted Thiruvanchoor to the Speaker’s chair.

AC Moideen of the CPM and BB Gopakumar of the BJP contested on behalf of the LDF and NDA respectively. This was also the first time in the history of the Kerala Assembly that candidates from three different political fronts contested for the Speaker’s post.

Senior-most member of the Assembly and Ambalappuzha MLA G Sudhakaran served as the Pro Tem Speaker and supervised the election process.

Four nomination papers were submitted in support of Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan:

• Proposed by VD Satheesan and seconded by Sunny Joseph

• Proposed by PK Kunhalikutty and seconded by PK Basheer

• Proposed by Mons Joseph and seconded by Anoop Jacob

• Proposed by Shibu Baby John and seconded by CP John

For A C Moideen, the first nomination was proposed by Pinarayi Vijayan and seconded by K Rajan. The second was proposed by KN Balagopal and seconded by PK Praveen.

The nomination for BB Gopakumar was proposed by Rajeev Chandrasekhar and seconded by V Muraleedharan.