By NE NOW NEWS
Guwahati: The first session of the newly elected 16th Assam Assembly began on Thursday with MLAs taking oath and BJP legislator Ranjeet Kumar Dass being unanimously elected Speaker for a second term.
The four-day session opened with BJP MLA Chandra Mohan Patowary, the senior-most member of the 126-member House, being appointed pro tem Speaker.
Patowary administered the oath first to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and four cabinet ministers — Atul Bora of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), BJP leaders Rameswar Teli and Ajanta Neog, and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) MLA Charan Boro.
The remaining legislators were subsequently sworn in, with members taking oath in Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Bodo, English and Sanskrit.
Chief Minister Sarma told the Assembly that it was the first time newly elected MLAs had been allowed to take oath in languages of their choice even if those were not among the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The provision enabled some legislators to take oath in Karbi, Rabha and Rajbongshi languages.
Dass, the MLA from Bhawanipur-Sorbhog, was unanimously elected as the Speaker. It is his second term in the post after previously serving as Speaker between June 2016 and January 2017.
Speaking in the Assembly, Sarma said Dass would be the first person to serve a second term as Speaker of the Assam Assembly.
A former journalist and teacher, Dass had also served as an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer before joining politics in 2005. He previously served as president of the BJP’s Assam unit and as minister for panchayati raj and rural development in the earlier government.
Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya is scheduled to address the Assembly on Friday. Legislation related to the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Assam is expected to be tabled on May 26, the final day of the session.