The first session of the newly-elected Madhya Pradesh assembly members will begin here from December 18 during which MLAs who won in the November 17 polls will take oath, an official said on Thursday.

The four-day-long session of the 16th assembly, during which newly-elected members will take oath and other necessary business of the house will be transacted, will end on December 21, the official said.

Earlier in the day, Governor Mangubhai Patel appointed Gopal Bhargava, the senior-most MLA of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the pro-tem speaker to administer the oath of office to the new legislators and conduct business of the house during the short session.

Patel administered the oath of office to Bhargava at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan here in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and others.

Pro-tem speaker is a temporary presiding office appointed for a limited period of time to conduct the business of the house in the absence of a regular speaker. Usually, the senior-most member of the house is appointed the pro-tem speaker.

On Wednesday, Mohan Yadav, the three-time BJP MLA from Ujjain South, took oath as the new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh along with two deputies, Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla.

In the last month's assembly elections, the BJP bagged 163 of the 230 assembly seats, posting a resounding victory and retaining power in the central state. The opposition Congress was relegated to a distant second spot with victory in 66 assembly segments, while one seat was won by the Bharat Adivasi Party.