18th Bihar Assembly commences with swearing in of newly elected members
The 18th Bihar Legislative Assembly commenced on Monday with newly elected members being administered the oath of office.
They were sworn in by pro tem Speaker Narendra Narayan Yadav, who informed the House that members could take oath in Hindi, English, Urdu, Sanskrit or Maithili, and the process would begin with cabinet ministers.
Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who has been elected from the Tarapur assembly seat, was the first to take the oath, followed by fellow Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha, who has retained Lakhisarai for a fourth consecutive term.
After taking the oath, the ministers greeted the pro tem Speaker and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who, incidentally, is a member of the Legislative Council. Next in line, for taking oath, was veteran BJP leader Prem Kumar, who is understood to be the main contender for the Speaker’s post.
The election of the Speaker is scheduled on Tuesday. After Prem Kumar, it was the turn of RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who is tipped to retain the post of the Leader of the Opposition.
A number of MLAs, including minister Anand Shankar Prasad, took oath in Maithili, while some others, mostly from the Seemanchal region, did so in Urdu. A few members also took an oath in Sanskrit. At least two members, Vishnu Deo Paswan and Rahul Kumar Singh, elected from Darauli and Dumraon, respectively, took the oath in English.
Some of the members ended up swearing “in the name of God” as well as “in the name of Truth”, only to be corrected by the pro tem Speaker, a veteran several-term MLA, who told them that they could choose only one of the options.
The House was adjourned for the day after Khyati Singh, the secretary in charge of Vidhan Sabha, said that quite a few members had not turned up and they will be sworn in on Tuesday after the election of the Speaker. The pro tem Speaker, who spoke before commencement of the swearing in, told the House, “Many formalities have to be completed in the ongoing session, a reason why no questions will be taken”.
The five-day session is also scheduled to witness an address by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, jointly to members of both Houses, on Wednesday, when the second supplementary budget is also scheduled to be tabled. On Thursday, there will be the government’s reply to the debate on the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address.
The session will conclude on Friday with a debate on the second supplementary budget, followed by passage of the appropriation bill.
The session comes close on the heels of the assembly polls in which the ruling NDA won a brute majority, bagging 202 out of 243 seats.
The triumphant mood in the ruling camp was evident when the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues, upon reaching the Vidhan Sabha premises, where they were presented with bouquets of flowers.
