Bhopal: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Girish Gautam was unanimously elected as Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on the first day of the state budget session on Monday.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan moved a proposal in the House to elect Gautam as the Assembly's Speaker.
The proposal was seconded by Home Minister Narottam Mishra, Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang and Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel, besides other members from the treasury benches and Leader of the Opposition Kamal Nath.
Later, pro-tem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma declared Gautam elected to the spot.
Gautam filed his nomination for the post on Sunday.
The opposition Congress earlier said it had decided not to field its candidate for the post.
The post was lying vacant since March last year when NP Prajapati quit as the Speaker following the collapse of the then Congress-led government after several MLAs resigned from the party and their Assembly membership.
The BJP subsequently returned to power in the state under the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
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