The brief meeting between prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the leader of the opposition Sharad Pawar on the issue could not yield results since both sides stuck to their position.

While Pawar maintained that the post has always been held by the opposition and hence should go to his party, parliamentary affairs minister Madan Lal Khurana, who was present at the meeting, insisted that the ruling party should be allowed to hold the post since the speaker belonged to the opposition Telugu Desam.

The Congress has decided to field PM Sayeed for the post and several names from the BJP including Shanta Kumar and S Mallikarjuniah and Satpal Jain are doing the rounds. Almost the entire opposition is supporting the candidature of Sayeed while the TDP has announced that it would back the BJP candidate. The allies of the BJP includingthe AIADMK have authorised the prime minister to take a suitable decision including fielding of BJP candidate for the deputy speaker's post.