Ranchi, December 9
The first session of the newly elected sixth Jharkhand Legislative Assembly began here on Monday, during which Pro-tem Speaker Professor Stephen Marandi opened the proceedings by reading out the Governor’s message on the formation of the new House. In his address, Marandi paid tribute to the martyrs of Jharkhand and hoped for collective efforts to fulfill their dream of a developed state. He also outlined the process for the election of the permanent speaker of the Vidhan Sabha.
On this occasion, the MLAs of the House were first sworn in, which started with Chief Minister Hemant Soren taking oath as MLA of Barhait Constituency. Other ministers include Radha Krishna Kishore, Finance Minister and MLA from Chhatarpur; Deepak Birua, Transport Minister and MLA from Chaibasa; School Education Minister Ramdas Soren, who took oath as Ghatsila MLA in Santhali language.
Sudivya Kumar Sonu, Urban Development Minister and Giridih MLA; Health Minister Irfan Ansari and Jamtara MLA taking oath in Bangla; Hafizul Hassan, Water Resources Minister and Madhopur MLA; Shilpi Neha Tirki, Minister for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, who took oath as MLA from Mander holding the Constitution in her right hand.
This assembly differs from its predecessors in several important ways. The House now has 81 members instead of 82 after the abolition of the nomination system of the Anglo-Indian community. For the first time in the history of Jharkhand, the ruling coalition has won more seats than the previous assembly. One-fourth of the MLAs are newcomers and four parties – JD-U, LJP-R, AJSU Party and JLKM – have one MLA each.
In this 81-member House, the leading party of the ruling coalition, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), has 34 MLAs, 21 from the BJP, 16 from the Congress, four from the RJD and two from the CPI-ML. This time there is no independent MLA in the assembly. – IANS