Former Health Minister Vipin Parmar was unanimously elected as the new Speaker of Himachal assembly on Wednesday.
Deputy Speaker Hans Raj announced this in the assembly on the second day of the ongoing budget session here after passage of four resolutions for Parmar's election as the Speaker. One of the resolutions was presented by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
Thakur, who is also the Leader of the House, along with Opposition leader Mukesh Agnihotri took him to the Speaker's chair. Subsequently, Parmar took charge as the new Speaker of the state assembly.
The 55-year-old BJP leader was unanimously declared as the new Speaker as no other member of the legislative assembly filed a nomination. The opposition Congress with a strength of 21 members in the 68-member House did not file any nomination for the post.
The ruling BJP has a total of 44 MLAs whereas the CPI (M) has a lone MLA. Two independent MLAs are supporting the ruling BJP government.
The Speaker's post had been lying vacant since January 16 when then Speaker Rajeev Bindal submitted his resignation. Bindal was later elected as the president of the state unit of the BJP.
Parmar was elected to the state assembly for the first time in 1998. He was re-elected as MLA in 2007 and 2017.
He was inducted into the council of ministers as Health Minister along with the portfolios of Medical Education, Ayurveda and Science and Technology on December 27, 2017. Prior to that, he was also the organising secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the state and secretary at the national level.