Gujarat: Newly-elected MLAs of state Assembly to take oath today

The newly-elected MLAs of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly will take oath on the first day of the two-day session on Monday. Earlier on December 12, BJP leader Bhupendra Patel took oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for a second consecutive time in Gandhinagar.

Protem speaker and senior-most BJP MLA, Yogesh Patel, will administer the oath to the 182 MLAs in the first session of the 15th Legislative Assembly in the state capital Gandhinagar.

Elections for the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be held on Tuesday. On the second day of the two-day session on Tuesday, the new members will meet to elect the Speaker, he said.

As per an official notification issued by the Assembly Secretariat, elections for the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be held in the first half on Tuesday and other businesses will be taken up in the second half.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won the seventh consecutive term in the state with a record mandate in recent elections, has declared Shankar Chaudhary and Jethabhai Bharwad as candidates for the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively.

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Bhupendra Patel took oath as the 18th Chief Minister along with 16 ministers on December 12, four days after the results of the Assembly polls were announced.

While the BJP won 156 seas in the 182-member House, the opposition Congress finished a distant second with 17 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could bag five seats in the debut Assembly contest in Gujarat. Three seats went to Independents and one to Samajwadi Party.

(With inputs from PTI)