New Delhi, Nov 1 (PTI) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday participated in the opening session of Inter-Parliamentary Union's (IPU) governing council meeting, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said on Sunday.

Birla is chairing the Indian delegation in the meeting which is being held virtually from November 1-4, the secretariat said in an official statement.

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Lok Sabha MP Poonamben Hematbhai Maadam and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, both from the ruling party BJP, are part of the delegation, it said.

Presiding officers of 144 parliaments are participating in the virtual meeting, the main agenda for which is the election of a new president of IPU for the term 2020-23, it said.

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The process of election to the post of IPU president commenced on Sunday, the statement said.

Each country has three votes in the presidency collegium, provided one delegate is a woman.

Duarte Pacheco from Portugal; Muhammad Sanjrani from Pakistan; Akmal Saidov from Uzbekistan; and Salma Ataullahjan from Canada are contesting the election for the post of IPU president.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)