The first session of 13th Himachal Pradesh Assembly commenced at Tapovan complex here with protem Speaker Romesh Dhawala administering oath to the newly-elected members of the House.
The Winter Session of the Assembly, which began on Tuesday will end on January 12.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur was first to take the oath, followed by cabinet ministers Mohinder Singh Thakur, Krishan Kapoor, Suresh Bharadwaj, Anil Sharma, Sarveen Chowdhary, Ram lal Markanda, Vipin Singh Parmar, Varinder Kanwar, Bikram Singh, Gobind Thakur and Rajiv Saijal.
leader of the opposition Mukesh Agnihotri took oath next, followed by former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Other members took oath district-wise starting with Chamba. Jagat Singh Negi from Kinnaur was last to take oath.
The election of Assembly speaker would be held on Wednesday and senior BJP leader, Rajiv Bindal is likely to be speaker.
While eight MlAs including former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his son Vikramaditya Singh, sole MlA of CPI(M) Rakesh Singha took oath in English, all the other MlA took the oath in Hindi.
Before the proceedings in the house started, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur went to the seat of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, with all his cabinet colleagues. He shook hands with his predecessor and welcomed all the members in the house.
The old member and guest gallery was occupied by former speaker BBl Butail, Pratibha Singh, former Member of Parliament from Mandi and wife of former Chief Minister.
The legislative Assembly this time has a total of 22 new legislators making their debut in the assembly.
It is perhaps the first time after the inception of state assembly, that such a large number of new entrants have made entry together in the State Assembly.
Apart from this, the swearing-in of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his son Vikramaditya Singh is also the first instance, when a father-son duo has become member of State Assembly. Virbhadra Singh is the oldest members in the 13th Assembly, while his son has become the youngest MlA in the same house.
The list of 22 first-timer MlAs include: Rajesh Thakur, Satpal Raizada, JR Katwal, Subhash Thakur, Kamlesh Kumari, Vikramaditya Singh, Parmjeet Pammi, Pawan Nayyar, Arjun Singh, Hoshiar Singh, Ravinder Kumar, Arun Kumar, Jia lal, Rita Dhiman, Inder Singh, Ashish Butail, Mulkhraj Premi, Sunder Singh Thakur, Surender Shourie, Rakesh Jamwal, Jawahar Thakur and Parkash Rana.