Kapoor to act as Protem Speaker of Uttarakhand Assembly

Dehra Dun, Mar 8 (UNI) Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Harbansh Kapoor will be sworn in as Protem Speaker of Uttarakhand Assembly on March 9.

Sources said Mr Kapoor, who won the Dehra-Khas seat for the record sixth time, would be sworn in as Protem Speaker of the Assembly by Governor Sudarshan Agarwal at the Raj Bhavan.

Later he will administer oath to all 69 elected MLAs as members of the Uttarakhand Assembly at 1200 hrs at the Vidhan Sabha.

BJP had emerged as the largest party in the recently concluded Assembly election in the state winning 34 seats out of 69 for which elections were held. The BJP was one MLA short of forming the government. However with the support of two independents and three MLAs of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, the party will be forming the government.

Maj Gen (retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri who was unanimously elected leader of the legislative party on March 1 was sworn in as the fourth Chief Minister of Uttarakhand today in pesence of BJP stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Murali Manohar Joshi and party supremo Rajnath Singh and MP Hema Malini joining later on.

Mr Khanduri has been given time till March 20 to prove his majority in the Assembly. One more MLA from Pithoragarh and former Speaker Prakash Pant was also sworn in as minister in the ceremony.

UNI