The newly-constituted 14th Madhya Pradesh Assembly began here on Wednesday with the swearing-in of the newly elected legislators. The session commenced without the leader of Opposition, as the main Opposition Congress failed to decide its leader in the House till then.
As many as 193 out of 229 were administered oath on the first day, while the remaining would take oath as members on Thursday. After the oath-taking, Governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s would address the House. Pro-tem Speaker KD Deshmukh administered oath to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who took oath in Hindi, while senior Minister Babulal Gaur took oath in Sanskrit. Another senior Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and few other members also took oath in Sanskrit.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had won elections from both Budhni and Vidisha Assembly constituencies, has already resigned from Vidisha seat. The Congress is yet to announce the name of the leader of Opposition in the Assembly. The leader of Opposition of the previous Assembly Ajay Singh and former minister Mahendra Singh Kalukheda were strong contenders for the post.
The election of the Speaker would take place on Thursday that would be followed by the Governor's address. Senior BJP member Sita Sharan Sharma is the front-runner for the post of the speaker, the sources said. The Supplementary Budget for 2013-14 would also be passed during the ten-day session.
The House bore a rather different look as several bigwigs from both ruling and opposition parties –including 10 ministers–bit the electoral dust. The BJP has 165 members, the Congress 58 and the BSP 4 while there are three independent members in the House.
The Supplementary Budget for 2013-14 would also be passed during the ten-day session. However, later in the evening, the Congress announced that its leader of the opposition in the House would be Satyadev Katare and the name of senior Congress legislator Rajendra Singh has been finalised for Deputy Speaker’s post.