In a historic first in Himachal House, father, son take oath
As the first session of the 13th Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh began on Tuesday, for the first time in the state’s history, a father and son took oaths as member of the House.
Former six-term chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his son Vikramaditya Singh won seats in the state assembly in election held in November last year.
Interestingly, 83-year-old Virbhadra Singh is the eldest member in the assembly while his son, Vikramaditya Singh (28), is the youngest.
Virbhadra had declared that the 2017 polls will be his last but he launched Vikramaditya, who made his assembly debut from Shimla Rural, a seat his father vacated for him.
The former chief minister, meanwhile, shifted to Arki assembly segment in Solan district and won.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur was first to be administered the oath, when the house assembled at 11 am.
DHARAMSHALA:
After Thakur, senior most cabinet minister Mahender Singh took the oath, followed by other cabinet ministers including Kishan Kapoor, Suresh Bhardwaj, Sarveen Chaudhary, Ram Lal Markanda, Vipin Singh Parmar, Virender Kanwar, Bikram Thakur, Govind Singh Thakur and Rajiv Saizal.
Leader of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) Mukesh Agnihotri was next to take oath followed by Virbhadra Singh.
The pro-tem speaker then administered the oath to the MLAs in chronological order of assembly constituencies.
Of the 68-member assembly, 22 are new faces.There are only four women are in the new assembly, three from the BJP and one from the Congress.
Governor Acharya Devvrat will also address the assembly on Wednesday.
Election for the post of the deputy speaker will be held on Thursday. The BJP is yet to finalize a name for the post.