Newly-elected MLAs of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh take oath

Gangtok, June 3 (PTI): The newly-elected members of Sikkim Legislative Assembly on Monday took oath of the membership of the House.

The Pro-Tem Speaker Sangay Lepcha administrated oath to the newly-elected MLAs during the day-long sitting of the House.

Eight members, including former chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, took oath in Nepali language, while one MLA each took in Lepcha and Bhutia languages respectively.

The rest of the MLAs took oath in English.

As soon as the House sat for the day, new Chief Minister P S Golay went up to the seat of his predecessor Chamling and greeted him before taking his seat in the House.

Before the oath ceremony took place, the Pro-Tem Speaker announced that three legislators Chamling, D T Lepcha and Kunga Nima Lepcha have vacated one out of two assembly seats from where they were elected.

While Chamling and his party colleague D T Lepcha vacated Poklok-Kamrang seat and Martam-Rumtek seats, the SKM legislator and HRD Minister Kunga Nima Lepcha left Gangtok seat.

In all 28 MLAs took oath of the membership of the House.

Golay is not the member of the House at present.

The House subsequently elected the SKM first-term MLA L B Das as the Speaker by consensus, while the Pro-Tem Speaker Sangay Lepcha was elected as the Deputy Speaker.

As soon as the Speaker had settled on his chair, Chamling made an impromptu statement questioning the legitimacy of P S Golay’s appointment as the chief minister in the wake of his conviction to one year’s imprisonment in a corruption case by a lower court of Sikkim in late 2016 which the later had served out after the Sikkim High Court had upheld a year later.

Even as Chamling could complete his speech, the House was thrown in a turmoil as several treasury members got agitated and strongly rebutted the former Chief Minister’s contentious remarks.

The Speaker L B Das later expunged Chamling’s remarks as well as those by the members of treasury benches.

In his maiden speech in the 19th Sikkim Legislative Assembly, Golay, the Leader of the House, regretted the unfortunate remarks made against him by his predecessor and said that his appointment as the Chief Minister is legitimate.

Golay said that he wished to take everybody, including the opposition, along in taking Sikkim on the path of development and prosperity over the next five year.

Itanagar: The newly-elected MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh took oath as members of the Seventh Legislative Assembly on Monday.

Pro-Tem Speaker Phosum Khimhun administered the oath to the newly elected legislators on the first day of the two- day session which began on Monday.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu was the first to take oath followed by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and the cabinet ministers.

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Nabam Tuki was absent during the oath taking ceremony.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Passang Dorjee Sona filed his nomination for the post of Speaker of the Assembly, while BJP member Tesam Pongte filed his papers for the post of Deputy Speaker.

The election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker would be held on Tuesday, Assembly sources informed.

The BJP led by Khandu won 41 seats in the 60-member Assembly, in the elections held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections on April 11 in the northeastern state bordering China.

The Janata Dal (United) won seven seats, National People’s Party five, Congress four, People’s Party of Arunachal one and Independents got two seats.