Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and 124 other newly-elected members of the 14th Assam Assembly took oath as members of the House on its first day today, while BJP MLA Ranjit Dass was elected its Speaker unopposed.
Oath to the new legislators was administered by pro tem Speaker Phani Bhusan Choudhury, AGP MLA from Bongaigaon, who was administered the oath of office and secrecy to his post by Governor P B Acharya on May 28 at the Raj Bhavan here.
Besides first time Chief Minister Sonowal and his nine council of ministers drawn from BJP and alliance partner parties AGP and BPF, former three-time Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also took oath as a legislator.
BJP MLA from Sorbhog was elected as Speaker of the 14th Assembly unopposed with opposition Congress and AIUDF MLAs extending support to Dass.
The three-day session beginning today will be addressed by the Governor tomorrow and will also elect the new deputy Speaker.
The 126-member House has 60 BJP, 26 Congress, 14 Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), 13 All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), 12 Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) and an Independent MLA.
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The new Speaker after assuming the charge of his post assured the House that he would ensure all the legislators would be given opportunity to speak speak about the issues concerning the people in their respective constituencies.
He said he would carry forward his work giving equal importance to the peoples' representatives from all religions, communities, ethnic groups.
While majority of the MLAs took their oath in Assamese, and a few in English, Bodo and Bengali, the newly elected BJP MLA and popular Assamese film actress Angoorlata Deka and her party colleague Ashok Sarma took their oaths in Sanskrit.
