Imphal, July 10: Drama gripped the proceedings of the House today when L Lala of the Congress was elected unopposed as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly amidst a walk out staged by the Opposition in the morning sitting of the ongoing Monsoon session today.

The Opposition staged the walk out alleging that procedures for electing the Deputy Speaker were flouted by the ruling Front.

Lala was elected from Khundrakparn constituency on a Samata Party ticket and was among the three Samata Party MLAs to switch side to the Congress from the Opposition bloc, DPA recently.

The sign of things to come unfolded when O Joy moved a point or order and maintained that there were some flaws in the proceedings for electing the Deputy Speaker.

Joy moved the point of order after Speaker TN Haokip introduced the agenda to elect the Deputy Speaker after the question hour of the morning session.

Pointing out the flaws of the proceedings, Joy said the report of the Business Advisory Committee did not mention anything about the election of the Deputy Speaker.

As such, the proceedings of the election should be taken up only after the Chief Minister, who is also the leader of the House, effects some changes in the Business Advisory Committee report, maintained Joy.

The stand of Joy sparked off a lively debate between the Treasury bench and the Opposition with both referring to different rules of the Manipur Legislative Assembly Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.

From the Opposition, O Joy, former Chief Minister RK Dorendra, I Hemochandra and L Ibomcha argued against electing the Deputy Speaker under wrong proceedings.

The case of the Treasury bench was highlighted by the Chief Minister, Commerce and Industries Minister Th Debendra, MLA T Meinya and MLA N Biren who referred to numerous rules of the Assembly to argue that nothing in the proceedings was wrong for the election of the Deputy Speaker.

With neither side willing to step back, O Joy and I Hemochandra threatened that the Opposition will be compelled to stage a walk out if the Ruling Front foist the election on them.

However this failed to cut ice with the Ruling members who stuck to their stand maintaining that the notification for the election of the Deputy Speaker was intimated to all the MLAs by the Speaker on July 3.Faced with no alternative the Opposition finally staged a walk out.

After the walk out, Speaker TN Haokip announced the unopposed election of Lala as the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.

L Lala submitted three nominations to the Speaker for the post of Deputy Speaker yesterday at 10.45 am.

The first nomination was proposed by Ngamthang Haokip with Francis Ngajokpa seconding it while the second nomination paper was proposed by Ph Parijat and seconded by K Ranjit.

The third nomination paper was proposed by N Biren and seconded by Gaikhangam.

After the Speaker announced the election of Lala as the Deputy Speaker, the new incumbent was ushered to his chair by the Chief Minister.

According to precedents the Deputy Speaker is to he taken to his chair by both the leader of the House and the leader of Opposition but as the entire Opposition had staged a walk out it was left to the Chief Minister alone to show the chair to Lala.

When the House re-assembled for the afternoon session, the newly elected Deputy Speaker addressed the House.