Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Vipin Parmar was unanimously elected as the new Speaker of the state assembly on Wednesday.
Deputy Speaker Hans Raj announced this in the assembly on the second day of the ongoing budget session here after the passage of four resolutions for Parmar's election as the Speaker. One of the resolutions was presented by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
The four resolutions are a part of Assembly procedure.
Thakur, who is also the Leader of the House, along with Opposition leader Mukesh Agnihotri took him to the Speaker's chair. Subsequently, Parmar took charge as the new Speaker of the state assembly.
The 55-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was unanimously declared as the new Speaker as no other member of the legislative assembly filed a nomination.
The opposition Congress with a strength of 21 members in the 68-member House did not file any nomination for the post.
The ruling BJP has a total of 44 MLAs whereas the CPI (M) has a lone MLA. Two independent MLAs are supporting the ruling BJP government.
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The Speaker's post had been lying vacant since January 16 when the then Speaker Rajeev Bindal submitted his resignation. Bindal was later elected as the president of the state unit of the BJP.
On Monday, the chief minister told the media that the BJP high command had decided to appoint Parmar as the new Speaker.
Thakur said that he had spoken to BJP national president JP Nadda and mentioned that Nadda finalised the name of the MLA from Sullah constituency in Kangra district for the Speaker's post.
Following that, Parmar filed his nomination papers on Tuesday in the assembly.
It is to be noted that Parmar, a law graduate, was elected to the state assembly for the first time in 1998. He was re-elected as MLA in 2007 and 2017.
He was inducted into the council of ministers as Health Minister along with the portfolios of Medical Education, Ayurveda and Science and Technology on December 27, 2017.
(PTI Report)
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