Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Charandas Mahant is likely to be elected Speaker of the fifth Chhattisgarh Assembly during its inaugural session on Friday. Members of Opposition parties —Bharatiya Janata Party as well as Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) Jogi (J) and its alliance Bahujan Samaj Party have extended support to Mahant.
With the efforts of Legislative Affairs Minister Ravindra Chaubey, all the political parties had agreed on the name of Mahant and his election is expected to be unanimous.
Chaubey made telephone calls to former Chief Minister Raman Singh, State BJP President Dharamlal Kaushik as well as JCC (J) leaders Dharamjeet Singh and Renu Jogi for supporting the name of Mahant in order to maintain a healthy tradition in the House.
“We are attempting to run and do meaningful discussions in the State assembly with the cooperation and support of all and are trying to establish a healthy tradition here in the State Assembly by doing so”, said Chaubey commenting on his call of support to opposition parties for Mahant.
All of them reportedly extended support to Mahant and Dharamjeet Singh was proposer of his nomination while Renu Jogi supported his claim as Speaker. Both of them were in the State Assembly Secretariat while Mahant filed the nomination papers.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Chaubey, Minister for Home and Public Works Tamradhwaj Sahu and several other ministers and newly elected members were also present on the occasion.