Published Jun 02, 2026 | 11:14 AM ⚊ Updated Jun 02, 2026 | 11:14 AM
Shanimol Osman
Synopsis: The Kerala Legislative Assembly elected Congress MLA Shanimol Osman as the Deputy Speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly. Shanimol secured 99 votes in the election, comfortably defeating LDF candidate Muhammed Muhassin P, who received 34 votes.
Ending a gap of nearly three and a half decades, the Kerala Legislative Assembly has once again elected a woman as its Deputy Speaker. On Tuesday, 2 June, Congress MLA Shanimol Osman was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Shanimol secured 99 votes in the election, comfortably defeating LDF candidate Muhammed Muhassin P, who received 34 votes.
Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan did not cast his vote, in keeping with convention. The voting also witnessed a few absences and abstentions.
UDF MLAs Abid Hussain Thangal and Sandeep Warrier, along with LDF MLA CK Harindran, were not present in the House during the election.
The three NDA MLAs abstained from voting.
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With her victory, Shanimol Osman becomes only the fourth woman deputy speaker in the history of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and the first woman to occupy the post in more than three decades.
The last woman Deputy Speaker was Bhargavi Thankappan, who served from 2 April 1987 to 5 April 1991. Before that, KO Aysha Bai and A. Nafeesath Beevi also became deputy speakers.
A prominent Congress leader, Shanimol entered public life through the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and later rose through the ranks of the Congress organisation, serving as a member of both the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
She has also held positions as president of the Mahila Congress and chairperson of the Alappuzha Municipality.
A lawyer by profession, Shanimol was born in 1966 in Thakazhi in the Alappuzha district. She holds postgraduate and law degrees (MA, LLB).
Her electoral breakthrough came in the 2019 Aroor by-election, necessitated by the election of AM Arif to the Lok Sabha. She wrested the constituency for the UDF, although the seat returned to the LDF in the 2021 Assembly election.
In the 2026 Assembly polls, Shanimol reclaimed Aroor for the UDF, winning by a margin of 9,324 votes.
Following the Deputy Speaker election, the Assembly paid tributes to former Union Minister KP Unnikrishnan, former MP KP Dhanapalan and former minister TU Kuruvila.
The Opposition’s first urgent resolution of the session on price rise was taken up. The debate will continue over the next two days, with Question Hour being suspended during the period.
After a two-week recess, Chief Minister VD Satheesan is set to present the first Budget of the UDF government on 19 June.
Discussions on the Budget will be held on 22, 23 and 24 June. The Assembly will reconvene on 29 June and continue deliberations on demands for grants before taking up the Appropriation Bill. The current session is scheduled to conclude on 1 July.
(With inputs from Dileep V Kumar.)
