NEW DELHI: The first session of the 16th Assembly began here on Wednesday with Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, deputy CMs Diya Kumari and Premchand Bairwa and others taking oath as members.
Congress MLAs, including former CM Ashok Gehlot, former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, reached the House wearing black bands. The Congress MLAs were protesting against the security breach in Parliament.
As soon as the proceedings of the House began, Congress MLA Shanti Dhariwal objected to the sudden calling of the Assembly session.
Protem Speaker Kalicharan Saraf started administering oath to the new MLAs. First, CM Bhajanlal Sharma and then Deputy CM Diya Kumari and Dr. Premchand Bairwa took oath. Then one by one other MLAs were sworn in till the time of filing of this report.
This special session has been called for two days to administer oath to 199 new MLAs.
The work of administering oath to the newly elected members is likely to be completed on the first day of the session. The Speaker will be elected after the remaining MLAs are sworn in on Thursday. During the time of Congress government, the first session of the 15th Assembly was called on January 15, 2019 and 197 MLAs were sworn in on the first day.
Till now, the new Assembly session has been called only after the oath of the cabinet in late December or January. This time, however, there is only the Chief Minister and two Deputy Chief Ministers in cabinet so far. There is a lot of discussion on calling a special session of the Assembly without the entire cabinet. Till now, after the formation of the new government, first state ministers are sworn in and then the first session of the Assembly was called.