The first session of the newly elected 16th Assam Assembly began on Thursday with legislators taking oath and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ranjeet Kumar Dass being unanimously elected Speaker for a second term.
The four-day session began with the appointment of BJP MLA Chandra Mohan Patowary, the eldest legislator in the 126-member Assembly, as the pro tem Speaker of the House.
The 70-year-old legislator from Tihu first administered the oath to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the four cabinet ministers — Atul Bora (from Asom Gana Parishad), Rameswar Teli and Ajanta Neog (both from BJP), and Charan Boro (Bodoland Peoples Front).
This was followed by the swearing-in of the other MLAs. Legislators took the oath in several languages, including Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Bodo, English and Sanskrit.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in his address to the Assembly that it was the first time in the House’s history that newly elected MLAs were allowed to take the oath in languages of their choice even if those are not part of the 22 languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. This provision allowed a few newly elected legislators to take the oath in Karbi, Rabha and Rajbongshi languages.
Dass, the MLA from Bhawanipur-Sorbhog, was unanimously elected as the new Speaker. This is the second stint of the 60-year-old in the post, which he had earlier held for eight months between June 2016 and January 2017.
“This is an important day as Dass would be the first person who will be gracing the Speaker’s post in Assam assembly for a second stint,” chief minister Sarma said in his felicitation address to Dass.
A former journalist and teacher, Dass served as an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer for a few years before resigning from service and joining active politics in 2005. A former president of the BJP’s Assam unit, he was the minister for panchayati raj and rural development in the previous government.
On Friday, Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya will address the Assembly. Legislation on implementing a uniform civil code (UCC) in the state will be tabled on May 26, the last day of the session.
