115 MLAs take oath till 1400 hours

Kolkata, May 16 (UNI) Altogether 115 MLAs were administered oath of office in the West Bengal Assembly till 1400 hours today.

They were administered the oath by Protem Speaker and veteran legislator Gyan Singh Sohan Pal, who was earlier unanimously elected the Protem Speaker.

While the Left Front MLAs constituted the maximum number of legislators who were administered oath today, seven Congress and two SUCI MLAs were among others who took oath this morning.

However, 29 Trinamool Congress lawmakers decided to take the oath tomorrow. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would also take the oath tomorrow.

The notable MLAs, who took oath included, outgoing Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, former speaker Hasim Abdul Halim, outgoing Forest Minister Jogesh Burman, outgoing Food Processing Minister Sailen Sarkar, Bilashibala Shahis,outgoing Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty, former Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rehman and former Education Minister Partha Deb.

Among the Congress MLAs were Mr Sudip Bandopadhyay, Mr Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, Mr Manas Bhuniya and Mrs Deepa Dasmunshi, wife of Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi.

Veteran SUCI MLAs Debaparasad Sarkar also took oath today.

In all 293 new legislators had been elected to the 294-member Assembly. Election to the Bhatpara seat in North 24 Parganas was countermanded following the death of a candidate and is being held today. The winner for that seat will be administered the oath later.

Meanwhile, all the members have been asked to produce their respective certificate of election, issued by the concered Returning Officer after the counting of votes on May eleven.

Of the 293 new MLAs, 235 belonged to the ruling Left Front, which swept the Assembly elections with four/fifths majority,followed by 29 of the main Opposition Trinamool Congress and 21 of the Congress.

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