Banshidhar Bhagat appointed Pro-tem Speaker

By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 14 Mar: The fourth assembly of Uttarakhand has been dissolved. The seniormost MLA Banshidhar Bhagat has been appointed Pro-tem speaker of the new Assembly. A notification was issued on the dissolution of the Fourth Legislative Assembly of Uttarakhand today by Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd). As per the notification, the Fourth Legislative Assembly constituted on 14 March, 2017, has been dissolved with effect from 11 March, 2022. The elections for the fifth assembly of the state were held on 14 February, the results of which became known on 10 March.
Governor Gurmeet Singh has appointed senior BJP MLA Banshidhar Bhagat as Pro-tem Speaker. After taking the oath of office as the Pro-tem Speaker, Bhagat will administer the oath to all the newly elected members. It is the Pro-tem Speaker who administers the oath to the new MLAs. With this, the new Legislative Assembly of Uttarakhand will be officially constituted.
Elections for the fifth assembly of Uttarakhand were held on 14 February while the election results were declared on 10 March after the counting of votes in all the five states where the assembly elections were held.
It is for the first time in the history of Uttarakhand as a separate state that a party has managed to retain power after the assembly elections. It is another point though that the sitting Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, could not win from his own constituency. At the same time, several Congress leaders, including the undeclared CM face Harish Rawat and PCC Chief Ganesh Godiyal, too, lost their elections.
In these elections, BJP has won 47 seats, Congress 19 and others four. With a comfortable majority in the assembly, BJP is now preparing to form the government, and there is a likelihood of the new government taking oath on the 20th or 21st of this month. While the speculation about the chief minister’s post continues, discussion has also begun regarding the faces to be included in the new cabinet.
Holi is on 18 March and till then the political activities are likely to remain subdued.