It is not often in a state that a former Chief Minister goes on to become the Speaker of the Assembly there. On Tuesday, BJP veteran and three-time Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the newly-constituted Assembly. Though Raman Singh was the most prominent contender in the running for the chief ministerial post after the BJP’s win in the recent Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, the party leadership, in a surprise move, picked Vishnu Deo Sai as the new CM. Subsequently, rather than sidelining Singh entirely, the party nominated him to the Speaker’s post. Singh is perhaps only the sixth former CM since Independence, who went on to become the Speaker. However, there have been many instances of former Speakers going on to become CMs. Besides Chhattisgarh, at least four states have seen their ex-CMs later assuming the Speaker’s post, which include Rajasthan, Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. Rajasthan: Hira Lal Devpura Hira Lal Devpura was a lawyer and a Congress leader. He was first elected to the Rajasthan Assembly in 1967 from Kumbhalgarh, a constituency he represented six times. Between February and March 1985, Devpura was named the state’s CM amid a constitutional vacuum in the wake of CM Shiv Charan Mathur’s resignation just 15 days before his tenure ended. Mathur’s resignation was part of the Congress’s damage control efforts after the killing of former Bharatpur royal and Independent MLA Raja Man Singh in a fake encounter, following an incident in which Mathur’s helicopter was allegedly attacked by Man Singh. So for the last 15 days of the government’s term, Devpura held the CM’s post for one of the shortest tenures on record. After the 1985 Assembly polls, Hari Dev Joshi became the new CM while Devpura was named the Speaker, a post he held for only seven months before resigning. Goa: Pratapsingh Rane and Francisco Sardinha Congress veteran Pratapsingh Rane first became the CM when Goa was still a Union Territory in 1980. When he first became Speaker of the House in 1999, Rane had already been a four-time CM. He would go on to become the CM again in 2005 and the Speaker again in 2007. Rane has been an elected member of the Goa Assembly 10 times in his career, serving as the Leader of Opposition twice. In 2018, he was caught in a controversy after he called Goans settled abroad “toilet cleaners” while speaking in the Assembly. Francisco Sardinha, a six-term MLA from Curtorim and a four-term MP from South Goa, was the CM for less than a year from 1999 to 2000 after he broke away from the Congress and formed his own party, the Goa People’s Congress. He formed the government with support from the BJP, but it collapsed less than a year later when the BJP withdrew from the alliance. In 2001, Sardinha returned to the Congress and was named the Speaker in 2005. Manipur: Mohammed Alimuddin Mohammed Alimuddin was the first CM of Manipur after it attained full statehood. A member of the Manipur People’s Party, which had led the statehood movement, Alimuddin has been the only Muslim CM in the state so far. He belonged to the Pangal Muslim community, a group within the predominantly Hindu Meiteis who have recently clashed with the largely Christian Kukis. The seven-time MLA was also CM for two terms between 1972 and 1974, though both were short tenures. His first term ended after he lost a no-confidence vote and his second term ended amid defections. Late in 1974, he was named the Speaker in the Congress government but held the post for less than a year. From 1977 to 1979, he was also the finance minister in the short-lived Janata Party government. Meghalaya: Donkupar Roy Donkupar Roy was the longest-serving legislator in Meghalaya at the time of his death in 2019. He had represented the Shella constituency in the East Khasi Hill district since 1988, first as an Independent and then as a member of the United Democratic Party (UDP). Roy was also his party’s president from 2004 to 2019. After the 2008 state polls returned a hung Assembly, the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance – a coalition of non-Congress parties – came together to form the government with Roy as the CM. But the government collapsed a year later after several alliance members pulled out to back the Congress instead. Roy became the Speaker of the House in 2018 after another hung Assembly. Led by the National People’s Party, an NDA coalition government, which included the UDP, was formed. Roy was named the Speaker, a post he held until his death.
