Ganesh Vasudeo Mavalankar was free India's first Speaker having been unanimously elected on November 17, 1947 when the old Constituent Assembly sat as the legislature. He had earlier been the President of the Central Legislative Assembly. He was re-elected to the Chair in the Constituent Assembly (legislative) when it became the provisional Parliament of the Indian Union. After the elections, he was the natural choice as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He passed away rather prematurely on February 27, 1956. Mavalankar set up healthy precedents as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. |