17th Bihar Assembly's inaugural session kicks off with members taking oath

Patna, Nov 23: The inaugural session of 17th Bihar Assembly commenced on Monday with members being administered the oath of office by Protem Speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi. The ceremony was conducted at the central hall of the legislature building with strict adherence to COVID-19 norms.

According to the schedule read out by Manjhi, the newly elected members will be sworn in on the first two days of the session, on November 23 and 24.

Members representing constituency numbers 1 to 100 will take oath during the first half of Monday, from 11 am to 1 pm, and those representing constituency numbers 101 to 200, including RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, during the second half, from 2 pm to 4 pm.

The rest will be administered the oath of office on Tuesday, he said. Deputy chief ministers and BJP members Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi were the first ones to be sworn in.

Ministers who were administered oath included Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Sheela Kumari, Amarendra Pratap Singh, Rampreet Paswan, Ram Surat Kumar.

Jivesh Kumar was not present in the House when his name was called out. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is a member of legislative council, was present during the ceremony.

Prominent members who took oath in Maithili included Mithilesh Kumar, Vinod Narayan Jha, Nitish Mishra, Samir Kumar Mahaseth, Sudhanshu Shekhar, Haribhushan Thakur, while RJD member from Sheohar Chetan Anand, son of don-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh, stuck to English.

Congress member from Kadwa, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, and BJP member from Sitamarhi, Mithilesh Kumar, took oath in Sanskrit, and AIMIM members Shahnawaz and Akhtarul Iman were administered oath in Urdu.