By IANS,
New Delhi : Sixty eight members of the newly elected 70-member Delhi legislative assembly took oath as the first session of the house began here Thursday.
Delhi’s Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna Wednesday appointed Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a senior member of the assembly Jagdish Mukhi as pro-tem speaker.
Mukhi administered the oath of membership to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit followed by other lawmakers.
Lok Janshakti Party legislator Shoaib Iqbal and Bharatiya Janata Party legislator S.C.L. Gupta were not present.
Of the 68 members who were sworn-in, 54 took oath in Hindi, nine in English, two in Punjabi, two in Sanskrit and one in Bhojpuri.
On the opening day of the session, Congress leader Yoganand Shastri filed his nomination papers for the post of the assembly speaker. The speaker would be elected Friday.
He will succeed party colleague and stalwart Prem Singh, who was the speaker in the last assembly. Prem Singh won the polls and will continue to be the member of the hosue.
Kiran Walia has replaced Shastri, who was the health minister in the previous cabinet of the Delhi government headed by Sheila Dikshit.
Dikshit’s council of ministers include A.K. Walia, Rajkumar Chauhan, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Mangat Ram Singhal, Haroon Yusuf and Kiran Walia.
The Congress won 43 seats in the 70-member assembly and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 23. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won two seats. One seat each went to the Lok Janshakti Party and an Independent.