New Delhi: Vijender Gupta, BJP legislator from Rohini, was elected the Speaker of Delhi Assembly on Monday after his name was proposed by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. Soon after his election, the proceedings of the House were adjourned due to disruptions by the Opposition legislators of the AAP.
During the House proceedings, conducted by pro-tem Speaker Arvinder Singh Lovely, Gupta was elected as the new Speaker with unanimity.
Soon after assuming the new role, Speaker Gupta faced the challenge of slogan shouting by the AAP legislators during the discussion on vote of thanks for the election of new the Speaker.
In his opening remark, he condemned the Leader of Opposition Atishi for trying to raise an issue without permission and disturb the proceedings.
“I want to warn the Opposition that they should not try to spread anarchy. They should let the proceedings to continue smoothly,” he said, expressing his displeasure over the behaviour of AAP legislators.
Earlier, while greeting Speaker Gupta on his election Atishi said photos of B.R. Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh had allegedly been removed from the Chief Minister’s Office.
Her remarks, without the permission of the Chair, triggered noisy protests from the Treasury Benches with the Speaker censuring the LoP for speaking out of turn and context. When the AAP legislators continued to disrupt the proceedings, the Speaker adjourned the House proceedings.
Earlier, CM Gupta along with her Council of Ministers took oath as members of the Legislative Assembly. The first session of the House commenced on Monday morning and saw all newly-elected legislators taking oath.
There are 48 BJP legislators and 22 AAP legislators in the 70-member Assembly.
Along with Delhi CM, the BJP ministers namely Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Kapil Mishra, Ravinder Singh Indraj, Pankaj Kumar Singh and Manjinder Singh Sirsa also took the oath.
AAP’s MLAs, including Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Atishi, also took oath during the first session of the House.
With her appointment, Rekha Gupta has become the fourth woman Chief Minister of Delhi, following in the footsteps of Sheila Dikshit, Sushma Swaraj, and Atishi.
She is also the fourth BJP leader to hold the top post in the national Capital, succeeding Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, and Sushma Swaraj.
The first session of the Delhi Assembly is set to last for three days.
The proceedings began with BJP MLA Lovely taking oath as the pro-tem Speaker, a temporary position responsible for conducting House proceedings until a full-time Speaker is elected. Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena administered the oath to Lovely at Raj Niwas.
(IANS)
