BJP MLA Ramapati Shastri sworn in as pro tem speaker of UP assembly

Lucknow, Mar 26: Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel on Saturday administered the oath of pro-tem speaker to senior BJP leader Ramapati Shastri at the Raj Bhawan. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was among those present on the occasion, sources in the Raj Bhawan said.

Shastri, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Mankapur in Gonda district, will now administer the oath to the newly-elected legislators of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. A panel of four others was also administered the oath to assist Shastri, the sources said.

An eight-time MLA, Shastri was the social welfare minister in the previous Yogi Adityanath government. After the 2017 poll victory of the saffron party, he was given the portfolio of social welfare and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe welfare. Shastri had also served as a minister during the regimes of former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh. PTI